VP Nur floats new political party

A new political party, Gono Odhikar Parishad, has been formed with Reza Kibria as convener and ex-DUCSU vice president Nurul Haque member secretary.

Nurul Haque announced the name of the party at a programme at Pritam Zaman Tower in the capital’s Paltan area on Tuesday.

Earlier, the programme to make the announcement of the party’s name was deferred twice over complications in availing an auditorium and because of the communal violence across the country centring the incident at a Cumilla puja mandap.

On 20 October, Nurul Haque wrote in his Facebook page that because of various reasons he could not announce the party’s name on 30 September. The date was deferred to 20 October but that too was shifted to 26 October as they could not get any venue for the programme because of administrative complications, he added.

The organisers of the new party said that they have been thinking of fielding candidates in all 300 seats in the next parliamentary elections. But before that the top leaders want to take to the streets with all other parties, demanding free and fair elections in the country.

Gono Odhikar Parishad convener Reza Kibria is the son of former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria. An Oxford graduate, Reza Kibria returned to the country leaving his job at IMF (International Monetary Fund) in 2018. He joined Gono Forum and contested in the last parliamentary elections as a candidate of National Oikya Front, a BNP-led alliance.

Reza Kibria was elected the general secretary of Gono Forum. Later, he resigned from Gono Forum in February this year.

Nurul Haque rose to prominence with his leadership in the movement to reform quota system in the government jobs in 2018. Later, he was elected the vice president of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) in 2019. In that time, he was attacked at least 13 times by the ruling party’s student wing and law enforcement agencies. As of today, there are 17 lawsuits against him.