Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

The government and the BNP appear to be on a collision course over the venue of the latter’s much-talked about December 10 Dhaka rally as neither would budge on its stance.

The BNP yesterday alleged the government was conspiring to implicate its senior leaders in “false and fabricated” cases to make them ineligible for the national election “like it did to Khaleda Zia”.

Though BNP men faced transport strikes and obstructions ahead of most of the recent rallies in several cities, the situation in Cumilla was different before today’s rally.

At its December 10 rally in Dhaka, the BNP might announce the outline of a simultaneous movement with like-minded parties to press home the demand for an election-time caretaker government.

The BNP has no plan to oust the government from the December 10 rally in Dhaka, although some of its leaders at different times had threatened to unseat it.

The ruling Awami League will no longer be allowed to play games with elections, said BNP leaders addressing a mammoth rally in Faridpur yesterday.

Even though the Faridpur district is almost cut off from the rest of the country, thousands of BNP leaders and activists from nearby districts have been pouring in since Thursday to stage a massive rally today in the Awami League stronghold.

The ruling party is trying to fend off a persistent BNP campaign that, for the first time in many years, has managed to gain some public sympathy.

As tens of thousands of BNP supporters defied all odds and joined the rally in Barishal yesterday, the party asked them to unite and fight against the “illegal regime” to save the country.

Although Barishal is almost cut off from the rest of the country, BNP leaders and activists kept pouring into the divisional city for the second straight day yesterday to join today’s rally.

It appears as though allowing the practice of “buying” nominations for too long may have hurt the party’s internal democracy.

The BNP yesterday said its lawmakers were ready to resign and the parliament must be dissolved before the election.

BNP leaders and activists from seven northern districts started for Rangpur city as early as Thursday afternoon so that they could reach the city for today’s rally before the start of a bus strike at 6:00am yesterday.

One in every five children in Bangladesh is living with poverty and high climate risk, according to a new global report.

The special bulletin that Bangladesh Met Office issued on Monday morning had warned that Cyclone Sitrang would make landfall anytime between Monday midnight and Tuesday morning.

Cyclone Sitrang, which hit the coastal districts early today, is likely to cause  damage to the standing Aman paddy.

Recent mass gatherings mobilised by BNP signal a change in their strategy

The BNP rally in Khulna was largely peaceful with some incidents of vandalism and activists of the BNP and ruling Awami League chasing each other.

Centring the BNP rally today (October 22, 2022), a presumably unofficial strike was going on the 60km-long Jashore-Khulna Highway.

The ruling Awami League and the BNP have once again started rallying lesser and sometimes even completely unknown political parties to form alliances.