Jatiya Party undecided on polls alliance with AL after BNP says it will compete

The Jatiya Party is yet to decide whether to contest in the general elections under the Awami League-led Grand Alliance or separately after the BNP announced it will join the battle of votes.

“Discussions are under way. It will take one more day or two. We’ll let you know when the time comes,” Jatiya Party Secretary General ABM Ruhul Amin Howlader told reporters at the party chief HM Ershad’s office in Dhaka on Sunday. 

Earlier in the day, the Jatiya Oikya Front coalition and the 20-Party alliance, both of which have the BNP as the key component, announced that they would contest in the parliamentary polls.

The Jatiya Party contested the 2008 and 2014 elections separately with its plough logo and became the main opposition in parliament after the last election.

Ershad went to the talks with Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina recently with expectations to push the ruling 14-party coalition for more seats in parliament.

“We have submitted a list of 100 seats. We should get 70 of these,” Ershad had said.

As the BNP had been undecided until during the talks, the Jatiya Party had said it would decide later whether to go it alone in or with the Awami League’s boat logo.

While announcing the decision on joining the polls, the BNP’s alliances demanded deferment of the Dec 23 election by a month.

“The Jatiya Party is ready for the elections. But it’s up to the Election Commission to decide whether or not the polls will be deferred,” Howlader said.

He also hoped the elections would be held in a festive manner and there would not be any violence following the ballot.

Ershad inaugurated the distribution of the party’s nomination forms earlier in the day.

He bought nomination forms for the Dhaka-17, Rangpur-4, and Satkhira-4 constituencies while his wife, the party’s Senior Co-chairman and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Raushon Ershad collected the form for Mymensingh-4.