Although BNP had a plan to stage a comeback in politics reorganising it at the grassroots level, the outgoing year - 2017 - apparently turned into another bad year for it as the party confined itself to mainly indoor programmes and press conferences like the previous year.
The party had started the year with a failure to hold a rally in the capital on January 5 to observe the day as 'Democracy Killing Day' and the same way it finished it by facing a serious debacle in the December 21 election to Rangpur city polls.
The party senior leaders, including its chairperson Khaleda Zia, were busy throughout the year mostly dealing with cases filed against them.
The victory of BNP mayoral candidate in Match-30 Comilla city polls was the notable success of the party in 2017.
Political analyst and ex-VC of Dhaka University Prof Emajuddin Ahmed thinks BNP could not break the cycle of failure and make its presence visible in the political landscape throughout the year.
"The year 2017 was not a good year for BNP at all as the party could not come out of bad patch for various reasons, including government's continued repressive acts, the party's wrong strategy, weakness of its leadership and the falling health of Khaleda Zia," he observed.
He said BNP must take part in the next polls under any circumstances to bounce back in politics. "The party can wage a movement, but it has to be in a peaceful manner."
He also suggested BNP to complete the party overhauling process as soon as possible with making new committees of its different units and associate bodies, and boost mass contact to make the party ready for the next polls and movement. "Khaleda Zia must visit different districts and keep close contact with her grassroots leaders."
