Hasnat welcomes not nominated BNP leaders to join NCP

National Citizen Party (NCP) has extended an invitation to members of the BNP who have been denied nomination.

The call was made by Hasnat Abdullah, the party's chief organiser (South), during a coordination meeting held yesterday evening at the Chattogram Engineers Institution auditorium, attended by NCP leaders from the Chattogram city, north, and south units.

In his address, Hasnat directly courted the BNP leaders, saying, "To those in the BNP who have been denied nomination, but who believe in the Bangladesh-centric philosophy, and wish to take responsibility for the reconstruction of Bangladesh post-'24 -- we welcome you to the NCP."

The NCP leader sharply criticised the political environment, particularly targeting BNP. He noted that the public is "exasperated" by what he termed BNP's "mafia politics" and "extortion politics".

"People are fed up in every locality. They [BNP] have flooded the country with case-related business and are consumed by factionalism and grouping," Hasnat said.

"We want to say this: if one Hasnat Abdullah stands on the street, you will not be able to stop the victory of our ballot, not even with all your might," he declared.

"NCP does not believe in coalitions," he said. "However, if anyone wishes to join us on the question of reform, we will take them into an alliance," he said.

Saying they would not become a political opportunist like Khondakar Mostaq, he said, "We will fight, we will lose if necessary through a transparent fight, and we will support whoever wins fairly."

"But we will not go under anyone's armpit to join the cabinet… We do not believe in any behind-the-scenes negotiations," he said.