Former State Minister for Information Professor Abu Sayeed on Wednesday formally joined BNP.
He formally joined the party by presenting a bouquet to BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at the party chairman’s Gulshan office in the afternoon said BNP Media Cell Member Sayrul Kabir Khan.
Earlier on Tuesday, Prof Abu Sayeed met BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman.
Contacted, Prof Abu Sayeed said, “Considering the way extremism is rising across the country, as a patriotic citizen I believe BNP is now the only party that should be brought forward. That is why I have joined BNP.”
He said he is contesting the 13-parlimanetray election from the Pabna-1 constituency as an independent candidate.
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“I have become a candidate in the election. If the party asks me to stay in the race, I will do so,” Sayeed said.
Prof Sayeed was a member of the then Pakistan National Assembly in 1970 and was also part of the committee formed to draft Bangladesh’s constitution.
He was elected a member of parliament from Pabna-1 in the first parliament in 1973 and again in the seventh parliament in 1996. During the Awami League government in 1996, he served as State Minister for Information.
After the 1/11 political changeover, he came to be known as a reformist and did not receive an Awami League nomination in the 2008 parliamentary election.
He contested the 2014 parliamentary election as an independent candidate but was defeated.
In the 11th parliamentary election in 2018, he contested from Pabna-1 seat as a candidate of the BNP-led alliance Jatiya Oikyafront, but also lost.