JP leader Yasir under fire as he takes Ershad’s autistic child to party office to buy nomination form

Jatiya Party Joint Secretary General SM Yasir has been criticised for taking Eric Ershad, the autistic son of the late HM Ershad, to the party office to buy a nomination form for the Rangpur-3 by-polls.

The seat became vacant after the death of Ershad.

The political party established by former President Ershad has “turned into a circus” and the only heir of the party chief, who happens to be a special child, is being used for political purposes, Eric’s disgruntled mother Bidisha Siddique wrote in her Facebook post

“I would ask if the leadership of this party has turned insane.”

Ershad, the opposition leader in the 14th parliament, died on Jul 14. The parliament secretariat announced his seat vacant. It is likely to announce the by-poll schedule on Sept 1.

Jatiya Party has begun to sell nomination forms for the upcoming by-polls. It formed an eight-member election committee with party Chairman GM Quader as convener and Mashiur Rahman Ranga as member secretary.

Yasir collected his nomination form on Tuesday from the Jatiya Party office in Banani. Ershad’s son Eric and Joint Secretary General Hasibul Islam Joy were accompanying him.

Yasir were criticised following a post in the Facebook showing him collecting the nomination form while Eric accompanies him. Some of the party members raised the question if Yasir was using the son of the late party chairman to ensure his nomination.

bdnews24.com found his phone switched off when it tried to talk to Yasir for comment. He did not respond to the reporter’s mobile text messages either.

“I heard about the incident later. We’ve formed a committee which will scrutinise the incident,” Mashiur Rahman Ranga told bdnws24.com.

The Jatiya Party has been selling nomination forms in the Rangpur by-election for Tk 15,000.