Jatiya Party leaders hold talks to end leadership deadlock

The leaders of two Jatiya Party factions have held a meeting in a sign of ending the deadlock over its leadership.

Kazi Feroz Rashid, a loyalist of GM Quader, says they have agreed that Quader will head the party while Raushon Ershad will be the leader of the official opposition in parliament.

But there was no confirmation on the decision from Raushon’s side.

“It’s only a social gathering,” her supporter Mujibul Haque Chunnu said after the meeting at the Cosmopolitan Club in Dhaka’s Baridhara on Saturday night.

Raushon supporters Chunnu Anisul Islam Mahmud, Fakhrul Imam, AKM Salim Osman and SM Faysal Chisty, and Quader loyalists Rashid, Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu, Masud Uddin Chowdhury and Syed Abu Hossain Babla attended the meeting.

“It’s an unofficial meeting,” Imam said before the meeting.

“This meeting for consensus will play a role in resolving the ongoing crisis,” he said later.

Chisty and Babla earlier said Raushon and Quader would also meet on Saturday night, but there was no confirmation on the meeting between the two leaders later. 

They were supposed to discuss the nomination of HM Ershad’s son Rahgir Al Mahi alias Shad Ershad for the parliamentary by-polls to Rangpur-3, a seat vacated after the death of the founding chairman.

The two leaders would also discuss who will be the leader of the official opposition in parliament, Chisty said.

After the meeting of the two factions at the club, Rashid said they agreed Quader and Secretary General Mashiur Rahman Ranga will decide who will be the party’s candidate in the by-polls.

The party’s press wing said in a statement Ranga will brief the media about the meeting at the party’s Banani offices at 11am on Sunday.

Chunnu said Raushon, who is the deputy leader of the official opposition in parliament now, called a meeting of the Jatiya Party Parliamentary Party at her office in parliament at 1pm.

Quader was also invited to the meeting and its agendas include the issue of electing the leader of the opposition in parliament.

It will be the first meeting of the Jatiya Party MPs after the death of Ershad on July 14.

File Photo

The rift between his widow Raushon and brother Quader heightened last Wednesday when Raushon and her supporters declared illegal Quader’s letter sent to the speaker last Tuesday seeking to succeed Ershad as the leader of the opposition in parliament.

Named as acting chairman by Ershad before his death, Quader claims to have support of the majority leaders in the Jatiya Party Parliamentary Party, but Raushon and leaders loyal to her do not agree.

The faction led by Raushon declared her chief on Thursday, drawing threat of retaliatory action from Quader and raising concerns that the party might suffer another split.