Bdnews24.com Senior BNP leader M Saifur Rahman said Friday that there would be no meaningful election without former prime ministers Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina.

"I don't think we will get a meaningful election without the two leaders," the former finance minister said as the BNP leaders from Sylhet met him in the city.

"There should be options for the two leaders to engage in the election process," he said. Saifur, who is leading a faction of the BNP, also said he wanted "a greater participation" of the people in the polls.

Former BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and Saifur-led group's secretary general Hafizuddin Ahmed were also present there. Replying to a query, Hafizuddin said there was no need for re-demarcating the election constituencies.

He suggested that the government should be cautious so that the planned elections were not hampered because of the re-demarcation. Meanwhile, BNP factional leader Khandaker Delwar Hossain has separately called upon all political parties and the people to thwart what he said was an ill-designed election.

Speaking at a May Day discussion at the National Press Club, organised by the Sramik Dal, Delwar said they would resist an election that would lack people's mandate.

Delwar, known as a Khaleda loyalist, asked all political parties to stand united for the cause. He accused the Election Commission of conspiring to form a "rubber-stamp parliament." Labelling the EC as a "very controversial" institution, Delwar said it had been hatching a conspiracy to curb people's rights by promulgating an ordinance bypassing the parliament.

"They want to form a rubber-stamp parliament with the people of their liking keeping the BNP outside. But the BNP will never accept that notion," he said. He said a prolonged state of emergency was curbing the rights of workers.

The BNP chairperson's adviser retired brigadier general ASM Hannan Shah said that the caretaker government had failed to protect the country's border and sovereignty. "Part of South Talpatty is now under the control of India.

But the government has remained silent," he alleged. Sramik Dal president and BNP joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan presided over the discussion while BNP leader Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, acting office secretary Rizvy Ahmed, Sramik Dal senior vice-president Abul Hossain Chowdhury also spoke.