Dhaka: BNP could not reach a consensus over sharing seats with the partners of the Jatiya Oikyafront and 20-party alliances till Saturday night.

Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir held marathon meetings with the alliance leaders at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office, but failed to reach any understanding with them, reports the UNB.

Talking to reporters while leaving the BNP chief’s office after a meeting with Fakhrul, Gano Forum general secretary Mostafa Mohsin Montu said they have no misunderstanding with BNP over the seat-sharing. ‘We’ve told them to give seats to those who are popular and competent.’

Asked how many seats BNP agreed to share with their party, Montu said they sought 10-12 seats from BNP and gave the party charge to finalise its decision on it.

He said they will collect the letters from BNP over the nomination from the alliance on Sunday morning.

A Gano Forum leader, wishing anonymity, said BNP agreed to share seven seats with their party while five each with Nagorik Oikya and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Rab).

Meanwhile, BNP postponed issuing letters to its final candidates scheduled to begin on 8pm following demonstrations by supporters of some deprived nomination hopefuls.

Several hundred supporters of BNP international affairs secretary ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon (Chandpur-1), Taimur Alam Khandaker (Narayanganj-1) and Selimuzzamn Selim (Gopalganj-1) gathered in front of Khaleda’s office around 5:30pm and started demonstrating there.

The demonstration was going on till filing of this report around 9:15pm.