Shahidul Islam Shahid :
Deposed military ruler and Jatiya Party (JP) Chairman HM Ershad is about to lose his party, if not already lost, for making it’s members be in power no matter what the politics of others is. One now wonders if he has the determination to follow what he wants to do. His initial decision not to join the scheme of managed election by a party that was sure to be rejected by the people if election took place. Even as a former martial law administrator he thought it too much to hijack the whole election.
“He has lost self-control after conceding defeat to Begum Raushan Ershad in his race for the post of the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament,” Opposition
Chief Whip Tajul Islam Chowdhury told The New Nation on Friday.
“Ershad’s influence in the Jatiya Party has now eroded to the bottom. He continues to loss battles to Begum Raushan Ershad, beginning from the participation of January 5 general elections. Ershad boycotted the election while Jatiya Party took part in the polls under Begum Raushan’s leadership,” he said.
A seven-time winner in parliamentary elections, Tajul Islam Chowdhury was removed from the JP Presidium along with State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development (LGRD) and Cooperatives Ministry Moshiur Rahman Ranga on Tuesday by Ershad for their opposition to the party chief’s move to force JP ministers to resign from the government.
Earlier, in the third week of December 2013, Ershad expelled former Prime Minister Kazi Zafar Ahmed for opposing January 5 election that Ershad wanted to contest without participation of the BNP and its allies.
Ershad, however, took a “U-turn” through boycotting the election and forced 154 JP candidates to withdraw their candidatures within two weeks of Kazi Zafar Ahmed’s departure from the party.
Ershad’s eventually made the whole January 5 election controversial at home and abroad by helping 153 AL and its alliance’s candidates’ election to Parliament uncontested through boycotting the polls. Not only that he had also created a ‘credibility crisis of governance and Parliament’. His action had weakened the whole democratic process of the country, political observers said.
“Ershad himself had become elected to Parliament ‘by default’ under Begum Raushan Ershad’s leadership as Returning Officer couldn’t accept withdrawal of his candidature application due to procedural mistakes,” Moshiur Ranga said on Thursday.
“Possibly Ershad is the first person in the parliamentary history of Bangladesh to get elected though he boycotted the election. Had he cared minimum about morality he couldn’t have asked party MPs to elect himself the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament instead of casting vote for Begum Raushan Ershad,” Tajul Islam Chowdhury quipped.
The veteran parliamentarian regretted that Ershad ousted Kazi Firoj Rashid from the Presidium, as the latter elected Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament by the JP Parliamentary Party (JPPP) defeating his (Ershad’s) candidate. Twenty out of total 34 JP MPs put their signatures in the letter submitted to the Speaker by the Opposition Chief Whip.
Ershad was conspicuous by his absence at the JPPP meeting, sensing defeat of his candidate Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu.
Bablu recently shifted his allegiance to Ershad from Raushan camp, when he was made party Secretary General by the Chairman, another MP and JP Presidium member said, requesting not to disclose his identity.
Party insiders believe Ershad had now become “crazy” and “furious” when he failed to meet the Japanese Prime Minister Shinjo Abe at Hotel Sonargaon as a member of the party delegation during the meeting between the visiting Prime Minister and Bangladesh’s Leader of the Opposition. Besides, Ranga’s request to Ershad to resign from his position as Special Envoy to the Prime Minister before asking other party ministers to relinquish their posts in the government made him lose self-control.
Rejecting Ershad’s claim that the people would accept JP as the ‘real’ opposition and JP would take the place of BNP if JP ministers resign from the government, they said he was trying to befool others and his stance was ‘double standard’ and had no justification since he would continue as Special Envoy to the Prime Minister, they observed.
An MP from the women reserved seats of JP said, “The people will never accept JP as a real opposition party unless party Chairman Ershad resigns from his position as Special Envoy to the Prime Minister.”
“He is a cunning man, he wants everybody to resign from the government while he will continue as Special Envoy with the rank and status of a full Cabinet minister,” she said.
An influential JP Presidium member told this Correspondent that Ershad had started getting defeated continuously in battles with Raushan Ershad beginning from joining January 5 election till these days. He failed to make his sister Begum Merina Rahman, his sister-in law and wife of his younger brother GM Quader and his media advisor Sunil Suva Roy’s wife as MPs from the women reserved seats from JP’s quota.
“Ershad not only losing influence in the party but also emerging as an irrelevant and injurious man for the party,” he said, requesting anonymity.
He said, “Ershad is a confused emotional person and top-to-bottom politically inconsistent. Nobody knows what he will speak tomorrow.”
What happens to a party if its chief becomes an unpredictable character, the veteran JP leader posed the question and referred to Ershad’s decision to boycott January 5 general election. “It (boycott) had launched heaviest ever blow to the whole party allover the country. The result of the boycott was JP’s dismal performance in Upazila election. From the third largest party in the previous upazila polls, JP lagged far behind Jamaat and even behind JSD (Inu) in this year Upazila polls,” he regretted.
He said, “Ershad deactivated most of the party machinery across the country by boycotting the January 5 general election. Those withdrew their candidature did not know what to do as Ershad himself was contesting polls after boycotting.” He continued saying, “Ershad has pushed the Jatiya Party into the most grievous crisis after its inception by dividing the party and removing efficient Presidium members-Kazi Firoj Rashid, Tajul Islam Chowdhury and Moshiur Rahman Ranga.”
“The party is on the verge of division and JP had never experienced such a crisis ever before,” he said, adding, “No leaders of the party except Ziauddin Bablu is with Ershad. And soon the party Chairman will land in no where if he fails to correct himself immediately.”
He pointed out that: “Like an immature politician Ershad complaint to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina against Begum Raushan Ershad, Kazi Firoj Rashid, Tajul Islam Chowdhury and Moshiur Rahman Ranga for ‘undermining him.” “Tajul and Ranga also met the Prime Minister on Thursday and explained the present situation of Jatiya Party,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tajul Islam Chowdhury on Thursday threatened Ershad to unmask him by making his misdeeds public if he does not change himself immediately. While, Ranga blamed Ziauddin Bablu for dividing the party by influencing Ershad to expel Kazi Firoj Rashid, Tajul Islam and himself.
In a sharp rebuttal to Ranga, while talking to journalists after a party program at Diploma Engineers Institution at Kakrail in Dhaka on Friday, JP Secretary General Ziauddin Bablu, in an oblique reference to Kazi Kazi Firoj Rashid, Tajul Islam Chowdhury and Moshiur Rahman Ranga, termed them as ‘agents of BNP-Jamaat’, who were engaged ‘to divide the party’.
Bablu announced that JP would hold a grand rally at Suhrawardy Udyan on October 1 to mark its foundation anniversary, where Ershad will deliver a ‘policy speech’. Ershad, however, could not be contacted over telephone for a comment till filing this report Friday night.
In the meantime, BNP and Awami League (AL) leaders on Friday exchanged blames against each other’s party for ‘trying to divide the JP to fish out of muddy water’.
Deposed military ruler and Jatiya Party (JP) Chairman HM Ershad is about to lose his party, if not already lost, for making it’s members be in power no matter what the politics of others is. One now wonders if he has the determination to follow what he wants to do. His initial decision not to join the scheme of managed election by a party that was sure to be rejected by the people if election took place. Even as a former martial law administrator he thought it too much to hijack the whole election.
“He has lost self-control after conceding defeat to Begum Raushan Ershad in his race for the post of the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament,” Opposition
Chief Whip Tajul Islam Chowdhury told The New Nation on Friday.
“Ershad’s influence in the Jatiya Party has now eroded to the bottom. He continues to loss battles to Begum Raushan Ershad, beginning from the participation of January 5 general elections. Ershad boycotted the election while Jatiya Party took part in the polls under Begum Raushan’s leadership,” he said.
A seven-time winner in parliamentary elections, Tajul Islam Chowdhury was removed from the JP Presidium along with State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development (LGRD) and Cooperatives Ministry Moshiur Rahman Ranga on Tuesday by Ershad for their opposition to the party chief’s move to force JP ministers to resign from the government.
Earlier, in the third week of December 2013, Ershad expelled former Prime Minister Kazi Zafar Ahmed for opposing January 5 election that Ershad wanted to contest without participation of the BNP and its allies.
Ershad, however, took a “U-turn” through boycotting the election and forced 154 JP candidates to withdraw their candidatures within two weeks of Kazi Zafar Ahmed’s departure from the party.
Ershad’s eventually made the whole January 5 election controversial at home and abroad by helping 153 AL and its alliance’s candidates’ election to Parliament uncontested through boycotting the polls. Not only that he had also created a ‘credibility crisis of governance and Parliament’. His action had weakened the whole democratic process of the country, political observers said.
“Ershad himself had become elected to Parliament ‘by default’ under Begum Raushan Ershad’s leadership as Returning Officer couldn’t accept withdrawal of his candidature application due to procedural mistakes,” Moshiur Ranga said on Thursday.
“Possibly Ershad is the first person in the parliamentary history of Bangladesh to get elected though he boycotted the election. Had he cared minimum about morality he couldn’t have asked party MPs to elect himself the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament instead of casting vote for Begum Raushan Ershad,” Tajul Islam Chowdhury quipped.
The veteran parliamentarian regretted that Ershad ousted Kazi Firoj Rashid from the Presidium, as the latter elected Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament by the JP Parliamentary Party (JPPP) defeating his (Ershad’s) candidate. Twenty out of total 34 JP MPs put their signatures in the letter submitted to the Speaker by the Opposition Chief Whip.
Ershad was conspicuous by his absence at the JPPP meeting, sensing defeat of his candidate Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu.
Bablu recently shifted his allegiance to Ershad from Raushan camp, when he was made party Secretary General by the Chairman, another MP and JP Presidium member said, requesting not to disclose his identity.
Party insiders believe Ershad had now become “crazy” and “furious” when he failed to meet the Japanese Prime Minister Shinjo Abe at Hotel Sonargaon as a member of the party delegation during the meeting between the visiting Prime Minister and Bangladesh’s Leader of the Opposition. Besides, Ranga’s request to Ershad to resign from his position as Special Envoy to the Prime Minister before asking other party ministers to relinquish their posts in the government made him lose self-control.
Rejecting Ershad’s claim that the people would accept JP as the ‘real’ opposition and JP would take the place of BNP if JP ministers resign from the government, they said he was trying to befool others and his stance was ‘double standard’ and had no justification since he would continue as Special Envoy to the Prime Minister, they observed.
An MP from the women reserved seats of JP said, “The people will never accept JP as a real opposition party unless party Chairman Ershad resigns from his position as Special Envoy to the Prime Minister.”
“He is a cunning man, he wants everybody to resign from the government while he will continue as Special Envoy with the rank and status of a full Cabinet minister,” she said.
An influential JP Presidium member told this Correspondent that Ershad had started getting defeated continuously in battles with Raushan Ershad beginning from joining January 5 election till these days. He failed to make his sister Begum Merina Rahman, his sister-in law and wife of his younger brother GM Quader and his media advisor Sunil Suva Roy’s wife as MPs from the women reserved seats from JP’s quota.
“Ershad not only losing influence in the party but also emerging as an irrelevant and injurious man for the party,” he said, requesting anonymity.
He said, “Ershad is a confused emotional person and top-to-bottom politically inconsistent. Nobody knows what he will speak tomorrow.”
What happens to a party if its chief becomes an unpredictable character, the veteran JP leader posed the question and referred to Ershad’s decision to boycott January 5 general election. “It (boycott) had launched heaviest ever blow to the whole party allover the country. The result of the boycott was JP’s dismal performance in Upazila election. From the third largest party in the previous upazila polls, JP lagged far behind Jamaat and even behind JSD (Inu) in this year Upazila polls,” he regretted.
He said, “Ershad deactivated most of the party machinery across the country by boycotting the January 5 general election. Those withdrew their candidature did not know what to do as Ershad himself was contesting polls after boycotting.” He continued saying, “Ershad has pushed the Jatiya Party into the most grievous crisis after its inception by dividing the party and removing efficient Presidium members-Kazi Firoj Rashid, Tajul Islam Chowdhury and Moshiur Rahman Ranga.”
“The party is on the verge of division and JP had never experienced such a crisis ever before,” he said, adding, “No leaders of the party except Ziauddin Bablu is with Ershad. And soon the party Chairman will land in no where if he fails to correct himself immediately.”
He pointed out that: “Like an immature politician Ershad complaint to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina against Begum Raushan Ershad, Kazi Firoj Rashid, Tajul Islam Chowdhury and Moshiur Rahman Ranga for ‘undermining him.” “Tajul and Ranga also met the Prime Minister on Thursday and explained the present situation of Jatiya Party,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tajul Islam Chowdhury on Thursday threatened Ershad to unmask him by making his misdeeds public if he does not change himself immediately. While, Ranga blamed Ziauddin Bablu for dividing the party by influencing Ershad to expel Kazi Firoj Rashid, Tajul Islam and himself.
In a sharp rebuttal to Ranga, while talking to journalists after a party program at Diploma Engineers Institution at Kakrail in Dhaka on Friday, JP Secretary General Ziauddin Bablu, in an oblique reference to Kazi Kazi Firoj Rashid, Tajul Islam Chowdhury and Moshiur Rahman Ranga, termed them as ‘agents of BNP-Jamaat’, who were engaged ‘to divide the party’.
Bablu announced that JP would hold a grand rally at Suhrawardy Udyan on October 1 to mark its foundation anniversary, where Ershad will deliver a ‘policy speech’. Ershad, however, could not be contacted over telephone for a comment till filing this report Friday night.
In the meantime, BNP and Awami League (AL) leaders on Friday exchanged blames against each other’s party for ‘trying to divide the JP to fish out of muddy water’.
