Dhaka: The ruling Awami League looked happy on Thursday as BNP Vice Chairman Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury quit his party all of a sudden while BNP said his defection is unlikely to harm the party in any way.

Though BNP leaders are not seemingly worried over Mobin’s resignation, Awami League leaders think many other BNP leaders, mainly freedom fighters, may gradually desert the out-of-parliament opposition party showing no-confidence to its current leadership.

According to a section of BNP leaders, Mobin, a diplomat-turned politician, resigned from the party due to his disappointment over the party leadership, especially by party senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman.

They said Mobin, also a valiant freedom fighter, was annoyed as Tarique had frequently imposed various decisions during the party’s anti-government movement and his disagreement with the party-high-ups might have prompted him to quit the party.

Some other BNP leaders, however, said the BNP vice chairman might have left the party having failed to endure the pressure on him from various quarters to split BNP’.

Mobin, a 67-year old former foreign secretary, announced his retirement from politics resigning from BNP’s all the posts on health ground on Thursday morning.

‘I’m a war-wounded freedom fighter. Now I’m very sick and in no position to do politics. That’s why I’ve decided to retire from politics with immediate effect,’ Mobin, who joined BNP in 2008, told UNB earlier in the morning.

Giving his party’s reaction to the matter, senior AL leader Mohammad Nasim said, ‘It’s their [BNP’s] internal affair that who’ll join or quit it. But, we can say it’s just the start to desert BNP.’

Awami League joint general secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif welcomed Mobin’s resignation and said it is a sign of no-confidence in Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman’s leadership.

Contacted, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said he has received Mobin’s resignation letter and will hand it over to the party chairperson on her return home from London.

He said it is Khaleda Zia who will take the final decision whether the resignation letter will be accepted or not.

The BNP acting secretary general, however, declined to make further comment on the matter.

BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan said, ‘Shamsher Mobin’s resignation is neither a shock for nor a blow to BNP as the party and its leaders and activists were mentally ready to accept it. I think it won’t have any significant effect on our party activities.’

Nazrul said Mobin has not been in contact with the BNP leaders and activists since he was released from jail on bail this year. ‘We assumed that he might have lost his interest in politics as he didn’t maintain contact with the party since his release from jail.’

More importantly, he said, Mobin’s engagement with BNP had not been for a long time. ‘Still, we’ve a good number of seasoned diplomats and experts like Reaz Rahman to deal with foreign affairs and stay in touch with foreign friends and diplomats.’

Asked whether Mobin stepped out of the party due to any conflict with its leadership, the BNP policymaker said he does not think so.

Sabihuddin Ahmed, BNP chairperson’s one of the foreign affairs advisers, said they will surely miss an experienced foreign affairs expert and diplomat Mobin with his departure. ‘But the party’s activities won’t be affected for the absence of a person.’

Arrested by detectives on January 8 this year in a case related to violence, Mobin was released on bail on May 22. He now faces four cases.

After coming out of jail, he withdrew himself from BNP and its activities, and even was not there in Khaleda Zia’s team when she went to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Dhaka visit.

Some party leaders said his relation with the party high-ups, including Khaleda and her son Tarique, turned worse after he came out of jail as they were informed by a quarter that Mobin got bail following an understating with the government.

Since then, the BNP ex-vice-chairman who used to play the key role in maintaining relations with foreign envoys and other international communities became almost inactive.

A BNP senior leader, wishing anonymity, said Mobin expressed his frustration with him about the party’s various issues, including the way the party’s programmes were worked out.

He also said the BNP vice chairman was also shocked the way the Tarique behaved with him on a number of occasions during the opposition’s anti-government movement.

A telephone conversation between Shamsher and Tarique that got leaked during the 20-party’s movement in December last year also exposed Tarique’s ‘authoritarian attitude’ towards the freedom fighter.

Another party leader said Mobin was unhappy over the attitude of some BNP leaders at Khaleda’s Gulshan office.