Rather, the opposition coalition has been planning to step up its agitation and propaganda on the streets including grand rallies and sit-in programmes involving tens of thousands of people to force the four-party alliance government to carry out the proposed electoral reforms before handover of power in October.

The opposition parties are now gearing up for six days of road marches at union parishads, at district levels across the country, and in the capital beginning on July 25.

As thousands of people joined the marches, they turned into pre-election campaigns creating an election like environment in the capital and in other parts of the country, which fascinated the opposition leaders and encouraged them to avoid hard-line programmes like hartals, laying of sieges and blockades, sources said.

Talking to The Daily Star, senior opposition leaders said they believe that the ongoing movement on the streets is more effective than their previous programmes like hartals and laying of sieges. They said leaders and workers remain absent in hard-line programmes fearing arrests, injuries and harassment by the law enforcers.

"The ongoing road march programme where tens of thousands of people are participating spontaneously will be escalated into a mass upsurge if the government tries to hand over power to the caretaker government without bringing about the reforms," AL Joint General Secretary Obaidul Quader told The Daily Star.

Quader, a close aide to AL President Sheikh Hasina, also said they want to participate in the upcoming election in a victorious mood after forcing the government into implementing electoral reforms through public pressure.

Sources said Hasina, who is also the leader of the opposition in parliament, instructed senior opposition leaders to find out all possible expressions of democratic movements, which might involve larger participation to create pressure on the BNP-Jamaat-led four-party alliance government to accept their proposed electoral reforms.

A team of senior AL leaders has been working to chalk out the next course of opposition action programmes at the very end of the four-party alliance regime. After finalising the anti-government agitation by the AL leaders with a view to involving larger peoples' participation, Hasina will sit with senior 14-party leaders within the first week of the next month to finalise the strategy for the final round of the movement before the alliance government hands over power to the caretaker government.

Workers Party General Secretary Bimal Biswas said, "People are the motive force of all movements and we are planning to mobilise a huge number of people through our ongoing movement to create pressure on the alliance government to accept our demand for reforms."

He told The Daily Star that they might also hold a grand rally and an indefinite sit-in in the capital, and big rallies in different districts and upazila headquarters involving tens of thousands of people before October.

The opposition coalition has been demonstrating demanding reforms in the system of caretaker government and the Election Commission (EC) since last year. They held a number of agitation programmes on the streets to press home the demand.

But the government remains indifferent despite programmes like Dhaka siege, grand rallies, road, rail and river transport blockades, hartals, and laying of sieges to the EC, Prime Minister's Office and the Secretariat.