The Ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) will contest the upcoming local government elections independently, the party’s Acting Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said Thursday.

He announced the decision to journalists after an important meeting between BNP Chairman and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and leaders of the Rajshahi division at the party chairman’s office in Gulshan in the evening.

At the meeting, the Prime Minister said grassroots leaders should be given priority in selecting candidates after the Election Commission announces the schedule for the local government elections, according to Rizvi.

Union and upazila-level leaders, with assistance from district leaders, will sit together and select a single candidate, he said.

He urged grassroots leaders and activists to make collective efforts to ensure that no candidate contests the election against the party-supported candidate, Rizvi added.

Tarique Rahman particularly warned against multiple candidates contesting for the post of Union Parishad chairman in violation of the party’s decision, saying the party would support only one candidate for each position.

Rizvi said everyone must remain fully committed to the party’s decisions and discipline in the local government elections. Prime Minister and BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman has given clear instructions that strict organisational disciplinary action will be taken against anyone who violates party discipline in any way, he said.

Earlier Thursday evening, BNP Chairman and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman joined an organisational meeting with leaders of the party’s Pabna and Chapainawabganj district units in Rajshahi division as part of efforts to further organise and strengthen the party at the grassroots level.

Tarique Rahman has been holding a series of such organisational meetings with leaders of different district and metropolitan units to strengthen the BNP’s grassroots organisational structure.