Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus has accepted the resignation letters of Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuiyan and Mahfuj Alam, Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam said on Wednesday.

He added that the resignations will take effect once the Election Commission announces the election schedule, reported Dhaka Tribune.

Mahfuj Alam and Asif Mahmud were appointed as advisers to the interim government as representatives of the student leaders who had led the July uprising.

Mahfuj had been serving as adviser to the information and broadcasting ministry, while Asif Mahmud held advisory roles in the ministry of local government, rural development and co-operatives, and the ministry of youth and sports.

Amid the resignations, Bangladesh’s top electoral officials met President Mohammed Shahabuddin earlier on Wednesday to brief him on preparations for the February general elections.

The President assured “optimum support and cooperation” to the Election Commission to conduct the vote in a “free, fair and meaningful” manner.

Chief election commissioner A.M.M. Nasir Uddin briefed the President at Bangabhaban on the Commission’s preparations for conducting parliamentary elections and a referendum on the same day.

“The President wanted to know the details of how the EC will organise the elections and the referendum on the same day, how the ballot papers are being prepared, what will be colour of ballot papers, how those will be provided to voters, how much time a voter would take to vote and what is the method of vote counting,” EC secretary Akhtar Ahmed told BSS.

The President expressed satisfaction with the EC’s preparations. Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud had earlier said the election schedule would be announced after the meeting with the President.

With that meeting now concluded, the EC is expected to release the schedule soon. The EC secretary said the CEC’s speech will be recorded at 4 pm today, and letters have already been sent to BTV and Bangladesh Betar.

In the absence of the disbanded Awami League, the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has become the frontrunner in the upcoming polls.

Its former ally Jamaat-e-Islami and a cluster of right-wing Islamic parties are expected to be its main challengers. Both groups have announced their candidates for the 300-seat parliament.

On Wednesday, Dhaka said it has renewed efforts to bring back deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina from India.

Foreign Adviser Md Touhid Hossain said Bangladesh would continue diplomatic efforts to secure her return.

“We will try to convince India to send her back to Dhaka,” he was quoted as saying by the state-run BSS news agency. He added that Hasina’s repatriation depends on India’s decision.

Hasina, 78, has been living in India since she fled Bangladesh on August 5 last year following massive protests.

On Saturday, India's external affairs minister S. Jaishankar said Hasina came to India “in a certain circumstance and I think that circumstance clearly sort of is a factor in what happens to her. But again, that is something which she has to make up her mind about.”

Reports have hinted at possible third-country resettlement for the former premier, to which Touhid responded: “I did not receive any information through diplomatic channels.”

He had earlier noted that Bangladesh was not ruling out a response from India.

Hasina was sentenced to death on November 17 by the International Crimes Tribunal, along with former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, for “crimes against humanity” committed during the July-August mass uprising last year.

Following the judgment, Bangladesh sent India a formal extradition request. New Delhi has said it is examining the request and that it is committed to the best interests of the people of Bangladesh.

Hasina has termed the judgment a product of a “rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate”.

She has since been handed multiple sentences, including 21 years in jail in three corruption cases on November 27, and five years in jail in a separate land scam case on December 1.

Her niece, British MP Tulip Siddiq, received a two-year sentence in the same case.