The ruling Awami League yesterday told its alliance partners that decisions would be made about the share of seats in parliament, and then the 14-party alliance will participate in the election as a unit.

There is growing unease in the alliance over which partner gets to vie for how many constituencies, sources said. 

As the AL asked, four parties of the alliance yesterday provided lists of their desired constituencies.

The parties are the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), Workers Party, Bangladesh Tarikat Federation and Jatiya Party (Manju).

Sources say the parties remain firm in their demand for 20 seats in parliament.

Before the 2018 national election, AL's partners were given 11 constituencies to vie for with AL's electoral symbol of a boat.

Currently, AL partners have eight MPs.

But the ruling party intends to give fewer than 11 seats to the partners this time around, according to AL sources.

Negotiations over the matter will be held in the presence of AL President Sheikh Hasina and decisions would be made there, said veteran AL leader and coordinator of the 14-party alliance Amir Hossain Amu.

Sources say the negotiations would be held by December 10.

According to sources, the Workers Party made a list of 10 constituencies, and it may settle for seven; the Tarikat Federation made a list of 13, marking five as priorities; the JSD listed six; and the JP (Manju) listed five, and may settle for two.

Sources said some top leaders of the 14 parties were scheduled to hold a meeting yesterday afternoon about the tension between the AL and its allies over the share of seats. But as Amu contacted them, the scheduled meeting was called off.