Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu, who is known to be close to Raushan Ershad, has replaced ABM Ruhul Amin Howlader as Jatiya Party’s Secretary General after months of speculations.
Published : 10 Apr 2014, 08:43 PM
Whispers that Howlader is on the firing line grew louder after the party went into the parliamentary election amid bickering.
On Thursday, three months after the vote boycotted by the BNP, Bablu, who is said to be pro-Awami League, the party in government, was thrust into the key job.
Chairman HM Ershad’s press secretary Sunil Subho Roy told bdnews24.com Ershad exercised his powers as Chairman to remove Howlader.
Patuakhali-1 MP Howlader has been placed in the party’s Presidium, said Roy.
Bablu, who served the military strongman’s government as minister, is the MP from Chittagong-9 (Kotwali) constituency.
He was also made advisor to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the poll-time interim government before the January general election.
Bablu could be seen manoeuvring to save the alliance with Awami League as Ershad kept changing his position on joining the election.
He, Anisul Islam Mahmud who holds the key water resources ministry being an MP of the Opposition, and another presidium member Mujibul Haque Chunnu favoured going to the parliamentary election under Raushan Ershad.
Howlader, on the other hand, is said to represent the faction within the party which is more inclined towards the BNP.
He would miss the meetings at Raushan’s house but be seen with GM Quader, Ershad’s brother and another Presidium stalwart.
Howlader won the election but Quader, who was a minister under Hasina in her last term, did not.
After Ershad was hospitalised in dramatic circumstances despite his announcement of an election boycott, Raushan led the party into the election.
The Jatiya Party emerged as the second largest party with 33 seats in the polls and she became the Leader of the Opposition.
Ershad, for his part, is yet to speak publicly on the party contesting the election despite a boycott call. He says he will say everything ‘when the time comes’.
Raushan, however, has asserted that everything was done with Ershad’s consent. She also denied that there was no difference of opinion between them on matters of running the party.
Bablu stepped into student politics with JaSad Chhatra League and went on to become the General Secretary of Dhaka University Central Students Union.
He joined military strongman Ershad’s government while still holding the important office during the anti-autocracy movement in the 1980s.
He is still criticised by the student leaders of that time for his move.