The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

Former President and Bikalpadhara Bangladesh (BDB) chief Professor AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury and Secretary General Major (retd) Abdul Mannan yesterday resigned as the party witnessed a major poll debacle conceding defeat in all the 49 seats it contested from.

BDP spokesman Mahi B Chowdhury told BSS that both the leaders resigned from their respective positions in signed letters to the party's nine-member presidium, which in an urgent meeting accepted the resignations.

The meeting appointed BDP presidium member Professor Nurul Amin Bepari as the party's acting president and Mahi B Chowdhury as the acting general secretary but urged B. Chowdhury and Mannan to act as the chief adviser and the adviser respectively of the party.

The BDB presidium, however, welcomed the poll results congratulating Awami League President and the Grand Alliance leader Sheikh Hasina on her landslide victory, the spokesman said.

In his resignation letter, B Chowdhury wrote, "in view of the results of the 2008 general elections, I have decided to resign from the post of party president under clause 4.25 of the Bikalpadhara Bangladesh's constitution." He, however, promised to offer his service for implementing the party ideals and objectives.

Mannan in his resignation letter pointed out identical reasons and said "I accept the result and am resigning from the position of secretary general realising my own feeling and the mental state of party leaders and workers".

The BDB spokesman said their party contested from 49 constituencies and bagged some 700,000 votes while their candidates secured third positions in 23 seats.