Political crisis in Bangladesh intensifies with army backing BNP for December elections

Chief adviser Dr. Mohammad Yunus is only getting support from students party NCP

- BY NITYA CHAKRABORTY

The political crisis in Bangladesh has reached its flashpoint in the last 48 hours with two opposing groups getting ready for a major confrontation on the issue of holding elections in the country.

One side is led by the newly floated party of the students - National Citizens Party (NCP) backed by the chief adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the other group is the main opposition party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) supported by the Army Chief Waker Uz Zaman. The Jamaat el Islami is a divided house but most of them have distanced from their one time ally BNP and now supporting Dr. Yunus.

On Thursday, May 22, in the wake of the BNP demand that the chief adviser has to drop a few of his key advisers allied to the NCP, Dr. Yunus felt isolated as he was already under fire for the lapses in administration during a meeting early this week with the Army Chief. Reports said that he decided to submit his resignation as the chief adviser and indicated that to his close NCP advisers. They immediately intervened and persuaded him not to take any precipitate step at this crucial time of the country's politics.