All eyes on Obaidul Quader, Syed Ashraf after Monday's Cabinet meeting

After emerging from Monday's Cabinet meeting Road Transport Minister Obaidul Quader, the new Awami League general secretary, greeted mediapersons.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 24 Oct 2016, 09:43 AM
Updated : 24 Oct 2016, 09:43 AM

His predecessor, Public Administration Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, however, did not speak to the media saying "some other day."

The ruling Awami League chose its new leadership on Sunday, the last day of its two-day council.

Sheikh Hasina, who has been leading the party for 35 years now, has been re-elected as the president.

Ahead of the 20th National Council, speculations were rife that the general secretary of Awami League would be changed.

Quader's close aides said that Hasina had asked him to be ready while Syed Ashraf said only he and the party chief had knowledge about the impending changes.

On Sunday, Syed Ashraf proposed Quader's name as his successor. Syed Ashraf has been inducted into the party's policymaking Presidium.

All eyes were set on the two on Monday as none of them had spoken to the media on Sunday.

"I thank everyone," is what Quader told reporters before saying that he will speak to the media formally at party chief's Dhanmondi office.

As soon as Syed Ashraf came out from the Cabinet meeting, he faced numerous queries from the reporters.

But he brushed aside questions with a line, "Not today, some other day."

Syed Ashraf took charge of the party at a very difficult moment as acting secretary general in 2007 during the military-installed Caretaker administration.

Following a landslide victory in the 2008 general election, Hasina formed the government and kept Syed Ashraf in the Cabinet in the politically important portfolio of the local government and rural development (LGRD).

Despite complaints that Syed Ashraf was hardly available, Hasina kept trust in his efficiency to get the party elected for a straight second term.

It seemed that a rift had emerged between them last year, when Hasina removed him from the Cabinet, triggering wild speculations.

But all that ended a week later, when he was given another politically important portfolio, the public administration ministry.

Obaidul Quader headed Awami League's student affiliate, Bangladesh Chhatra League, when the party was badly rocked by the 1975 assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and much of his family.

Before being nominated as a Presidium member in the last council, 64-year-old Quader served as a joint general secretary.

Quader did not make it as minister when the Awami League formed government in 2009. Hasina gave her the portfolio of communication ministry towards the end of her first term.

After the 2014 polls, Hasina inducted him in the Cabinet with the portfolio of road transport and bridges.

He has often made the news headlines for his unexpected moves as minister.