Expressing frustration at the swelling number of ruling party leaders, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader on Sunday said true activists in their party are actually falling.

“The number of activists is falling day by day while that of leaders keeps rising. We don’t need so many leaders. Today, we need true activists for the party,” Quader said while addressing the triennial council of Rajshahi city unit of AL at Rajshahi Madrasa ground at noon.

“Looking at the stage, you’ll realise there’re plenty of leaders. People don’t even know the colourful faces on billboards and that’s [billboard] the place where they shine,” he added.

Quader, also the Road, Transport and Bridges Minister, urged the AL activists and leaders not to make the party weak by forming ‘pocket committees’.

He told them that ‘opportunists’ will sneak into their fold if committees are formed with people who have been ‘sold out’.

“Don’t hang a mosquito net inside a mosquito net. Don’t make a house inside a house. We’re awaiting a difficult challenge. We’ve to overcome this challenge. AL must be reformed with true activists,” the minister told the party activists.

Quader warned that ‘opportunists, goons, extortionists, land grabbers and drug peddlers’ will not be accepted in AL during the Mujib Borsho. “Keep in mind that power is not eternal and one must be acceptable to people if wants to become a leader.”

Later, Quader announced AHM Khairuzzman Liton as the president while Dablu Sarker general secretary of AL Rajshahi city committee, and instructed them to form the full committee within the next month.

AL presidium members Jahangir Kabir Nanak and Abdur Rahman, joint general secretary and information minister Dr Hasan Mahmud, MP Abu Sayeed Al Mahmud Swapan, SM Kamal Hossain, members of the AL central committee Nurul Islam Thandu and Begum Akhtar Jahan were, among others, spoke on the occasion.