The internal conflict of the Jatiya Party has come to the fore again as the party’s defeated candidates in the January 7 general election have been blaming the party’s top two leaders for the debacle.
JP chairman Ghulam Muhammad Quader on Friday, in a sudden decision, relieved its co-chairman Kazi Firoz Rashid and presidium member Sunil Shuvo Roy of all posts, exercising the power bestowed upon him by the JP charter.
It was learned that the party took the decision against the two leaders as they were behind Wednes day’s demonstration staged in front of the party chairperson’s Bannai office demanding the removal of chairman and secretary general Mujubul Haque Channu.
JP office secretary Mahmud Alam told New Age on Saturday that the two senior leaders were relieved of all posts as they were conspiring to split the party.
The two leaders held a meeting on Tuesday to stage Wednesday’s demonstration in front of the party’s Banani office against the chairman and secretary general, he added.
The defeated candidates of the party are expected to hold a meeting today at 11:00am at the Institute of Diploma Engineers in Dhaka to discuss their next course of action.
Some JP leaders, including party co-chairman Syed Abu Hossain Babla, also held a meeting at a place in the capital’s Kakrail area on Saturday to make today’s meeting successful, according to several party leaders.
JP has been in talks since the beginning of the 12th parliamentary election.
Although the majority of the leaders in a meeting of the executive committee did not agree to go to the election under the ruling Awami League government, the party finally joined the election.
As part of the negotiation, the ruling Awami League withdrew its candidates from 26 constituencies, paving the way for the JP candidates’ victory. The party, however, fielded candidates for 267 seats.
A number of party candidates boycotted the election before it was held.
The party bagged only 11 out of 26 seats from which AL withdrew their candidates, while none of the JP candidates won from other seats that AL and other parties had contested.
This is the worst election outcome for the Jatiya Party since 1991, as most of its contestants have lost their security deposits.
JP’s 11 winning candidates took oaths as lawmakers on Wednesday when several hundred leaders and activists demonstrated in front of the party’s Banani office, demanding the resignation of the party’s top leaders.
The demonstrators gave a 48-hour ultimatum to GM Quader and secretary general Mujibul to resign from their posts, which ended Friday.
The party leaders said that senior leaders, including co-chairman Kazi Feroz Rashid, co-chairman Syed Abu Hossain Babla, presidium member Sahidur Rahman Tepa, Liaquat Hossain Khoka, and Shunil Shubo Roy, were behind the demonstration.
The agitation embarrassed the party as the JP chairman took the decision to relieve the two senior leaders of all posts in the party, they said.
Firoz Rashid declined to comment on the decision.
‘He [JP Chairman] who took the decision will know better. There is nothing to say about this, and I have no reaction to the party’s decision,’ Firoz told New Age.
Former minister Firoz Rashid was a candidate in the Dhaka-6 constituency, but he withdrew his candidature as AL refused to withdraw its candidates from the seat.
Shunil Shubo Roy was a JP candidate in the Khulna 1 constituency, but he rejected the polls on the voting day, alleging vote rigging.
‘I came to know from media sources that I had been dismissed from the ‘commercial’ organisation named Jatiya Party. To me, this exemption is worth less,’ Sunil said in a Facebook status.
New Age
