Dhaka: Amid the party’s threat to boycott the remaining Union Council polls, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is going to sit with her party’s senior leaders on Sunday night to take a final decision in this regard, reports UNB.

The meeting will be held at the BNP chief’s Gulshan office at about 9:00pm with Khaleda in the chair, said her media wing member Sayrul Kabir Khan.

Sayrul said party standing committee members, vice chairmen, chairperson’s advisers, BNP joint secretaries general and organising secretaries will join the meeting.

Apart from the party’s organisational issues, he said the meeting will review whether the party should boycott or stay ther4e in the race for the remaining UP polls.

Around 31 people were killed and several hundred others injured in the two phases of the elections to 1,354 UPs held on 22 March and 31 March.

BNP-nominated candidates won the polls in around 108 chairman posts in the two phases. The party claimed that the elections were marred by vote rigging, capturing of polling stations and widespread violence.

After meeting Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad on 31 March, BNP joint secretary general M Shahjahan threatened to boycott election as he said the Commission has failed to ensure an environment for a fair election and check violence and regularities.

Later, some other senior leaders also echoed Shahjahan and suggested the party chief to quit the polls race.

Party insiders said there are differences of opinion among the party leaders over the decision to boycott the polls.

Some leaders think BNP is not being benefited from joining the election as it is making party men frustrated and financially losers, while others feel that their demand for restoration of non-party caretaker government is getting louder with the present election situation.

However, Ruling Awami League Awami League joint general secretary Mahbub-Ul-Alam Hanif on Saturday said BNP is thinking of boycotting the remaining Union Council (UP) polls to avert humiliation and debacle.

‘BNP has failed to reach out to people and get their verdict in the first two phases of the UP polls. They (BNP) are now planning to quit the election race to avert miserable and humiliating defeat,’ Hanif told reporters after a meeting of the party at its president’s Dhanmondi office.