JP ‘neutral’

Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad has opted for not supporting any mayoral aspirants in the Gazipur City Corporation polls as a strategy to gain more political mileage out of the prevailing situation.
Party insiders claimed Ershad’s strategy was working well as both the AL and BNP have been trying to get JP in their electoral alliance. This proved that the former president has emerged again as a factor in national politics, they said.
The way the two mayoral hopefuls backed by the Awami League and BNP have rushed to Ershad seeking his blessings and support in the battle of ballots has boosted the deposed military ruler and his close aides.
If the JP, a key component of the AL-led ruling grand alliance, extends its support to AL-backed mayoral candidate Ajmat Ullah Khan, Ershad might lose his bargaining strength with the ruling party in future, observed party insiders.
“If he [Ershad] extends JP’s support to BNP-backed mayoral aspirant MA Mannan, it would expose his position right now and the BNP-led alliance might not give him more importance ahead of the next parliamentary polls,” Major (retd) Khaled Akhter, personal secretary to Ershad, told The Daily Star yesterday.
Moreover, such announcement might also annoy the AL, resulting in an unwanted situation for him like the one he had to face in 2000 when the AL was in power, said sources in JP.
Considering all the aspects, Ershad has adopted the strategy of not backing any of the two mayoral contenders, an adviser to Ershad told this newspaper.
Yesterday, a statement issued by the office of JP chairman announced that the party did not extend its support to any mayoral aspirants in Gazipur.
After meeting Ershad on Tuesday night, Mannan had claimed that the JP chief has blessed and supported him in the mayoral race.
But without naming Mannan, the statement signed by Ershad’s press and political secretary Sunil Suvo Roy said it was absolutely false that a mayoral candidate got support of JP.
“Party’s local leaders and supporters will cast their votes in the polls on their choices as the party does not have any mayoral candidate,” it stated.
As there are no instructions from the JP high command, its district unit leaders and activists were still divided over extending their support to a mayoral candidate.
JP’s Gazipur district unit president Kazi Mahmud Hasan and general secretary Nurul Islam were campaigning for BNP-backed candidate Mannan, while Gazipur city unit president Monwar Hossain and some party men were working for Ajmat Ullah Khan.
Party sources said the chairman has remained silent about the division in local JP as he thought that it would not be possible to control the local leaders now.

Source: The Daily Star