Dhaka, March 13 -- While there were initial hopes for the national election by the year-end, leaders of the BNP now feel that there is a deliberate effort to extend the tenure of the interim government and delay the polls, using the need for reforms as a pretext.

Speaking to UNB, senior BNP leaders also accused the interim government of deliberately evading a clear election roadmap in spite of their party's repeated demands.

They argued that contradictory statements from the Chief Adviser and several other advisers regarding the election timeline have only deepened their suspicions about the government's true intentions and its determination to cling to power.

Amid these concerns, BNP policymakers, at their last standing committee meet...