Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad has named his brother GM Quader as his successor in the party.
Ershad announced that Quader has been made co-chairman of the party at a media call in its stronghold Rangpur on Sunday.
“He (Quader) will also take the party’s helm in my absence,” said Ershad, a politician known for changing decisions frequently.
Quader was with Ershad at the media call.
The two brothers embraced each other there.
The Jatiya Party, according to its constitution, has no co-chairman post. But Ershad now has moved to create the post for his brother.
The deposed military dictator said the co-chairman post would be given the official approval in the party’s triennial council in April.
He has also made Quader the council preparation committee’s convenor and former secretary general ABM Ruhul Amin Hawlader member secretary.
The former president had made Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu the secretary general by removing Hawlader several months after the party took part in the general elections in 2014 following much political drama.
Bablu is known to be a follower of Ershad’s wife and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Raushon Ershad.
Quader opted not to leave his brother’s side when Ershad announced to boycott the last general election.
The party’s Presidium Member Raushon walked in the opposite direction.
Later, Ershad was whisked off to hospital by law enforcers in charge of his security due to ‘illness’ during the elections, and ended up contesting the polls and winning.
He is Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Special Envoy now.
Former minister Quader, on the other hand, lost his seat.
He was later warned by his brother for his ‘offensive’ remarks about Bablu in 2014.
During the elections, the party was practically led by Raushon. Bablu is said to have maintained the liaison with the Awami League at the time.
After taking charge as the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Raushon said everything had happened with Ershad’s ‘consent’.
Ershad said he will disclose ‘everything when the time comes’.
Now he says Jatiya Party cannot play the role of the opposition in Parliament because of the presence of its leaders also in the government.
In reaction, Raushon recently said he has to say ‘many things’ to energise the party as its chief.
‘JP should leave govt’
Ershad said in the media call his party is in a ‘big crisis’ as it is facing ‘slow extinction’ because of the presence of its leaders in both government and opposition.
He said Jatiya Party has had no alternative to making Quader co-chairman in order to ‘survive’.
“Three MPs of my party have been made ministers. I myself am the special envoy of the prime minister.
“The people don’t understand whether we are in the government or in the opposition. The party is slowly getting lost,” he said.
“It shouldn’t be so. Now the three ministers and I will have to resign to strengthen the party,” he added.
The journalists were quick to ask him when they will resign from the government.
But Ershad apparently left the matter with the prime minister.
“I have told her (Hasina) that there is no alternative to our resignation for the sake of the party. I will seek her permission. She will listen to me, I hope,” he said.
Source: bdnews24