DHAKA, Aug 2: Awami League president and former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed has asked some of her top party leaders to try and forge an alliance with the left and liberal political parties in order to give a tough time to the BNP-led government of Begum Khaleda Zia.

Apparently, the leader of the opposition is now convinced that the BNP’s electoral strategy to contest the last general elections with its three political allies has paid it with a two- thirds majority in parliament.

Now she wants to craft out a similar alliance with what she calls Awami League’s old political allies.

Sources said that Sheikh Hasina had assigned the task to a group of her confidants to carry out some homework for such an alliance.

Accordingly, five top Awami League leaders — Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, M.A. Jalil, Tofail Ahmed and Suranjit Sengupta - had a meeting with the president and the general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, Manjurul Ahsan Khan and Mujahidul Islam Selim, last month.

The AL leaders regretted that they had treated their “traditional” allies in the left and liberal camp harshly while they were in power.

Incidentally, the two meetings took place on the eve of President Pervez Musharraf’s visit to Bangladesh, which was opposed by the AL and some of the left parties.

The meetings, however, failed to reach any conclusion. AL leader Suranjit Sengupta has said they are in no hurry and had agreed to continue the dialogue.

Rashed Khan Menon of the Workers Party has said that there is hardly any common ground for forging any political alliance with the Awami League.

He, however, defended the meeting with League by saying that such interactions should take place.

Sources said Sheikh Hasina was likely to take up the challenge of forging an alliance on her return to Dhaka from the United States.