Jatiya Party chief HM Ershad has said his party is no longer with the ruling alliance. “We’re no longer with the Grand Alliance,” he told reporters replying to a query at an event of the Jatiya Party’s youth affiliate on Saturday.“Our presidium member GM Quader, who was a minister of the Grand Alliance government, has resigned as well,” said Ershad.
On Monday, ministers had handed their ‘undated’ resignations to the Prime Minister paving the way to an ‘all-party’ interim government to oversee the upcoming general election.
Ministers, except Quader, the younger brother of Ershad, have been continuing in their office at the Secretariat following the submission of their resignations.
Quader was beside Ershad when he was making the latest statement at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh.
This decision of the Jatiya Party led by the former military dictator came at a crucial moment for the country.
While ruling alliance is preparing for the parliamentary election within the constitutional deadline of Jan 24, the BNP-led Opposition 18-Party alliance is opposing it and asking for restoration of the caretaker to conduct the polls.
Ershad, however, said the final announcement would come formally at a press conference.
The Jatiya Party participated in the 2008 national election as a component of the Awami League-led 14-Party Alliance and secured 30 seats. The party joined the government with Quader being made a minister.
The former ruler several times in the last two years had said that his party would quit the ruling alliance, but later retreated.
The country’s politics is set to have a new scenario with the Jatiya Party trying to form another alliance amid the BNP’s threat to boycott the national elections if held under a ‘partisan’ government.
The announcement followed a meeting on Wednesday between the Jatiya Party leaders and Bikalpadhara Bangladesh President Badruddoza Chowdhury, Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Janata League President Kader Siddiqui and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) chief ASM Abdur Rab.
Ershad has been saying that his party will not take part in the election if all the political parties including the BNP do not join it.
He had repeatedly criticised the leaders of the two major political parties in recent months and blamed them for the political impasse and the turmoil.
“They do not believe in democracy. The two parties are a curse. And the people have to be freed from them,” he said on Thursday.
The former dictator also wrote letters to the chiefs of the Awami League and the BNP recently urging them to sit for dialogues to settle the polls-time government issue. He got frustrated as the letters were unheeded.
‘JP won’t join polls under AL govt’
At Saturday’s event, Ershad reiterated that his party would not participate in the next election if it was held under the incumbent Awami League-led government.
“If we take part in the election under Awami League, people will call us traitors. We don’t want to be traitors.”
He claimed that the people had welcomed his announcement to forge a new alliance. “If we participate in any unilateral election, the people will say that we have joined the polls to bring this oppressive government (Awami League) to power again.”
GM Quader bashed the government for its role in running the state affairs.
“Dictatorship is prevailing in the country in the name of democracy. A single person is exercising all the power. There is no accountability,” he said.
Quader said the people wanted to be freed from these two parties. “Now we’ve the chances. We have to be united. The country has to be given a new direction.”
At the event, Ershad named new leaders of Juba Sanghati, the youth front of the Jatiya Party.
Rezaul Haq Bhuiyan and Belal Hossain were respectively made president and general secretary of the organisation. – bdnews24.com
