Dhaka, Dec. 7 -- Ahead of the general election, the National Citizen Party (NCP) has joined forces with Amar Bangladesh Party (AB Party) and the Rastro Songskar Andolan to formally launch a new political alliance styled the Democratic Reform Alliance.

The platform aims to build nationwide public support for state reform and to strengthen their collective challenge in the next parliamentary polls, likely to be held in the first half of February.

The announcement came on Sunday afternoon at the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU), where senior leaders of the three organisations jointly unveiled the alliance.

NCP Convenor Nahid Islam was made the spokesperson of the coalition.

The leaders expressed hope that several other reform-minded political...