In a meeting boycotted by those loyal to Raushan Ershad, Jatiya Party presidium members yesterday agreed on withdrawing its members from the Sheikh Hasina-led cabinet, according to meeting sources.
The meeting, held at JP Chairman HM Ershad’s Banani office around 11:30am, also decided to hold the party’s national council on April 16.
However, pro-Raushan presidium members termed the meeting “illegal” and refused to accept the decision to quit the cabinet.
“The meeting was illegal as it was convened by the illegally appointed secretary general of Jatiya Party [Ruhul Amin Hawlader],” said JP Presidium Member Anisul Islam Mahmud, also the water resources minister.
“The party chief appointed him [Hawlader] violating the party’s charter. The legal secretary general of the party was not present at the meeting,” he told The Daily Star in the evening.
Mahmud is one of the three JP members in Hasina’s cabinet. The other two are State Minister for Labour Mujibul Haque Chunnu and State Minister for LGRD Moshiur Rahman Ranga.
Opposition Chief Whip Tajul Islam Chowdhury, another member of the party’s apex policy and decision-making forum, said: “We do not agree with them on quitting the cabinet. We didn’t attend the meeting. Who are they to take the decision?”
Raushan Ershad, opposition leader in parliament and a JP presidium member, said she would come up with her reaction after properly going through the meeting’s decision.
After the two-hour presidium meeting, newly appointed JP Co-chairman GM Quader told reporters all the members of the forum agreed that it was necessary for the party to quit the cabinet.
“Most of the presidium members opined that Jatiya Party’s position is not clear in people’s mind. Therefore, almost all the policymakers expressed the same opinion that the three ministers from the party should quit from the cabinet. This is part of the primary step to restore the party’s image among people.”
Ershad on January 17 “unilaterally” appointed his younger brother Quader as JP co-chairman, a post that does not exist in the organisation according to the party’s constitution.
The JP presidium, however, left it on Ershad, who presided over the meeting, to make the final decision on when and how the ministers would quit the cabinet.
Twenty-two of the 37 members of the forum were present at the meeting, meeting sources said.
Among those who boycotted the meeting were Raushan, Anisul, Chunnu, Ranga, Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu, Tajul Islam Chowdhury and Kazi Firoz Rashid.
Asked about the absence of these leaders, GM Quader said the opposition leader could not attend the meeting as she was busy with three other official programmes of hers.
“Some members could not join the meeting for various reasons. But it doesn’t expose any rift in the party. There’s no division among us. We’re united,” he claimed.
At the briefing, new JP Secretary General Ruhul Amin Howlader said the April 16 council of the party would be held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital, and district-based monitoring cells will be formed for the upcoming union parishad elections to help the JP-backed candidates.
Rifts in the JP leadership surfaced after Ershad on January 17 announced Quader as the party’s co-chairman.
A day later, the then secretary general Ziauddin Bablu and some other pro-Raushan leaders announced her as the acting chairman of the party.
On January 19, Ershad at a press conference replaced Bablu with Howlader as JP secretary general, further widening the rift.
