Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad, who first filed nomination and later seemed stubborn to boycott the 10th parliamentary poll, reportedly failed to meet his party MPs inside the parliament building after taking oath yesterday.
The former military dictator finally took oath as MP of the Rangpur 3 constituency yesterday, ending speculations that he might stick to his decision to snub the January 5 election.
According to the constitution, yesterday was the last date for taking oath for becoming a member of parliament.
Ershad told Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, who administered his oath that he had come because the people of his constituency had elected him their representative.
Sources said his plan was to ask the party MPs to reconsider their decision to make his “defiant” wife Rawshan Ershad the opposition leader and consider him for the post instead.
Rawshad led a section of the influential leaders of JaPa to contest the poll when Ershad was taking treatment for “illness” at the Combined Military Hospital.
Despite Ershad’s refusal to campaign, he got elected in the Rangpur 3 seat and his party mates secured 32 other seats.
Minutes after Ershad left the parliament premises around 12:15pm amid tight security by intelligence agency personnel, a JaPa-team, led by Presidium Member Mujibul Haque, handed over Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury a letter confirming the party’s decision to make Rawshan Ershad the next opposition leader.
Ershad entered the speaker’s office around 11:50am under the watch of some intelligence officials, who have been practically guarding him since December 12.
His car entered the Jatiya Sangsad through the driveway, which is off limits for everyone other than the prime minister, the speaker, the opposition leader, the deputy speaker and the chief whip.
Parliament authorities restricted the entry of journalists as Ershad sneaked into the speaker’s office on level five of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
A DGFI official guarded the room of the speaker’s private secretary. Only two journalists, including the Dhaka Tribune reporter, were present in the private secretary’s chamber.
Parliament Secretary Ashraful Mokbul and other officials entered the room amid tight vigilance of the intelligence personnel. Ershad conversed with the Speaker for a while over a cup of tea.
He discussed about the chilly temperatures in Dhaka and his hometown Rangpur, Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury later told the Dhaka Tribune.
“[Finally] you come,” a smiling speaker greeted Ershad.
“I have to come as the people of Rangpur 3 [constituency] want me,” the speaker quoted Ershad as saying.
He then went to the parliament secretary’s room for signing the register.
Around 12:15pm, the JaPa chairman left the parliament building through the same route while the other journalists kept waiting at the main entrance of the building.
“We tried to meet him, but failed. Sir [Ershad] also wanted to meet us,” Mujibul Haque told the Dhaka Tribune after handing over the letter to the speaker.
Party insiders told the Dhaka Tribune that Ershad took the “u-turn” on the January 5 poll as the BNP had convinced him that the election would not take place and the army would take over, said a party presidium member, who was also a member of the interim cabinet.
Some of the ambassadors also reportedly told him that the poll would not take place, he said.
Party sources also said Ershad now wanted to tighten his grip on the party as the Awami League had apparently succeeded in forming a parliament despite violence and BNP’s poll boycott, said another pro-Rawshan presidium member.
At present, most of the JaPa MPs are reportedly loyal to Ershad’s wife Rawshan. The sources also said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina rated Rawshan more than her husband, who once announced that Jatiya Party was nothing without him.
At the meeting with Sheikh Hasina on Thursday, Rawshan demanded that the Awami League should induct some of her MPs in the cabinet so that Ershad could not distract them.
Although Sheikh Hasina did not make any definitive commitment, she told Rawshan that she would consider the demand.
Source: Dhaka Tribune