Polls will not be free and fair without the reforms proposed by the 14-party opposition alliance, he said and called upon the people to rally round AL to realise those.

The BNP-Jamaat government is planning to hold as "farcical" polls under the existing caretaker system without reforming the EC only to cling to power, he alleged. The people under the leadership of the opposition alliance will foil the motive, he said while addressing a public meeting at Champaknagar High School playground in the Sadar upazila.

"This government has to be removed from power as it is protecting the perpetrators of the August 17 bomb blasts across the country and other blasts earlier", he said.

This government, in its four-year tenure has branded Bangladesh abroad as a country of religious zealots, he said, adding peace will not return till they are in power.

He also criticised the government for politicising the administration and the EC. He also demanded cancellation of the recent appointment of JCD and Shibir activists as election officials.

The failed government has no right to remain in power, the front ranking AL leader said.

With Abul Kalam Buiyan in the chair, the meeting was addressed by, among others, bureaucrat turned politician and AL central Dr Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir and AL Finance Secretary Prof Ali Ashraf Khan.