PM's political assistant Rashed Khan welcomes NCP over reported initial decision to leave Jamaat alliance

The prime minister's political assistant Rashed Khan has welcomed the National Citizen Party (NCP), citing news of its initial decision to come out of the Jamaat alliance. He wrote this in a social media status last night.

In the post, Rashed Khan said some of the NCP's 'brothers' had told him the party would soon come out of the Jamaat alliance in something like a 'peaceful divorce', even if it is not announced right now. Today's NCP mass protest programme and Asif Mahmud's speech made that clearer, he wrote.

He wrote that from this mass protest he noticed hardly anyone speaking in favour of the 31 October long march.

In Rashed Khan's account, the positive side is that after a long time, several thousand people turned up at today's NCP mass protest. Since allying with Jamaat, NCP programmes had not drawn large crowds; against that background, an attendance of over a thousand after a long time is hopeful for the NCP's independent politics.

He wrote that if the party can practise independent politics this way, within the next year the NCP may emerge as a big force and be able to fill the 'Awami vacuum'.

Rashed Khan also said that working this way, the NCP might have a chance of becoming the main opposition party in the next national election too. The NCP had repeatedly spoken of that dream, but one cannot become the main opposition while staying in Jamaat's 'pocket'. That realisation being strong among many in the NCP is what produced today's independent programme, he wrote.

However, he wrote that the big obstacle on the NCP's path to independent politics is the party's eight MPs, who are desperate to hold on to alliance politics so they can be elected again with Jamaat's votes. Most of the NCP, though, is in favour of independent politics.

At the end of the post he wrote: 'Let us see whether the initial decision becomes final, or the NCP remains as Jamaat's pocket organisation. Finally, good wishes for the NCP's independent politics.'