A few issues, including the huge presences of people in the divisional mass rallies of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party amid the ongoing economic crisis, have made a section of the ruling Awami League leaders and activists nervous.

They are also disappointed by some steps their party has been taking to obstruct the BNP rallies, several senior AL leaders told New Age. Imposing transport strikes ahead of the BNP divisional rallies was actually working as a boomerang for the ruling party, they viewed.

Mentioning that some businesspeople involved in AL politics have recently left the country, maybe for business or personal reasons, the AL leaders said that these incidents, too, made the party activists a bit nervous.

‘The decision to enforce transport strikes ahead of the BNP rallies was a mistake. Instead of diminishing the presence of participants in the events, the strikes actually made the rally sizes “threefold”,’ a member of the AL advisory council told New Age requesting anonymity.

He further said that while people were in a bad shape, passing their days in discomfort, due to the ongoing economic crisis, the forecast made by party president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina of a likely famine in the coming year turned out to be a fresh cause for concern and embarrassment for the party leaders and activists.

‘One of the major reasons for [our] nervousness is that people now even started talking about the state of politics and criticising the government at tea stalls,’ the AL leader said, adding that public statements by some important party leaders have also become a matter of embarrassment for them.

He went on to say that none of the party leaders has dared to raise these issues at the party forum as the party was preparing for its next council session in December.

AL presidium member Shajahan Khan, however, told New Age that there was no reason for them to get nervous because of the BNP rallies.

‘It is true that a huge number of BNP leaders and activists are joining the BNP rallies. But there is a difference between activists and voters. People will vote for the Awami League as they are afraid of the BNP for its violent activities,’ he said.

The transport owners and workers are calling strikes as they fear a repeat of ‘the BNP’s arson attacks in 2013 and 2014’, the AL leader claimed.

Meanwhile, BNP standing committee member Iqbal Hasan Mahmud told New Age that the AL government had created an environment of fear over the past 14 years and people were now protesting overcoming the sense of fear.

‘Common people are also now coming to the BNP rallies. They have no choice  but to protest against the Awami League misrule,’ he said.

He told New Age that law enforcement agencies had started arresting and harassing BNP leaders and activists in a wholesale manner across the country to intimidate the party.

The BNP started holding mass rallies in major cities around the country on October 12.

The rallies so far held in the Chattogram, Mymensingh, Khulna, Rangpur, Barishal and Faridpur headquarters saw huge presences of people, despite a combination of obstacles, including politically crafted transport strikes, arrests by police and attacks by the ruling party activists.

The main opposition party is scheduled to hold its next divisional rallies in Sylhet, Cumilla and Rajshahi cities in the coming weeks.

BNP leader Iqbal Mahmud alleged that the police had started arresting BNP organisers in the cities ahead of the events.

‘Nevertheless, the BNP leaders and activists are absolutely energised these days,’ he said.  

The rallies have been intended to protest against abnormal increase in the prices of daily commodities and the killing of party leaders and workers, and aimed at pressing home the demands for release of the party chair Khaleda Zia and elections under an impartial government.