A meeting of the coordination committee of the Awami League (AL), Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD-Inu), Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) and the Workers Party (WP) in Dhaka last week failed to reach a consensus on the timing of the convention.

Earlier on November 9, the four opposition parties decided to hold the national convention in early January to muster public opinion against "marginalisation of the UP by pitting it against the newly formed Gram Sarker".

Sources said chances of the convention being held anytime soon is slim as political parties are preoccupied with their individual programmes.

The AL has called a hartal on January 3 and will announce its anti-government programmes from a January 10 rally in the city while JSD (Inu) is busy organising a grand rally of freedom fighters in the city on January 7. The CPB and the WP, both belonging to the 11-party leftist alliance, are also preparing for a January 8 countrywide rail and road barricade programme.

Party representatives recently attended meetings of the coordination committee, but were unable to fix a date for the convention due to "preoccupations with individual party matters", JSD's Abdullahil Quayyum and CPB's Ruhin Hossain Prince told The Daily Star.

Some insiders however hinted that the parties are uncomfortable with the lack of clarity of the convention's agenda.

While the main opposition AL wants to use the convention platform as a springboard for a greater anti-government movement, the CPB wants to see the convention focus on ways to strengthen the UP and abolish the controversial Gram Sarkar.

Organisational problems aside, the UP convention could actually bolster the anti-government movement if chiefs of the four parties joined the convention, sources said.