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Published : 07 Jul 2025, 06:36 PM
Jatiya Party Chairman Ghulam Muhammed Quader has sacked Mujibul Haque Chunnu as secretary general and appointed his trusted lieutenant, Shameem Haider Patwari, in his place.
The move comes amid a revolt by a section of the senior leaders.
The decision was announced on Monday by the party chief’s Press Secretary Khandaker Delwar Jalali, who confirmed the reshuffle to bdnews24.com. The chairman’s office also issued an official press statement.
GM Quader had appointed Chunnu as secretary general in September 2022, after expelling Mashiur Rahman Ranga from the party.
According to Article 20(a) of the Jatiya Party constitution, the chairman has the authority to relieve or expel any member from the party or a party position without issuing a show-cause notice.
This provision has long drawn criticism from a faction of senior and long-serving party leaders.
They argue that the clause has effectively granted the chairman “dictatorial powers” and accuse him of centralising authority to a damaging extent.
The Jatiya Party faces the risk of a major split, after a faction of senior leaders united to remove GM Quader from leadership, aiming to free the party from what they described as the “sin” of alliance with the Awami League.
Quader’s faction scheduled a national council for Jun 28 at the Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Center. However, government authorities later informed them that the venue could not be used on that date due to a prior engagement of the chief advisor.
In response, Quader postponed the council.
Party co-chairmen Anisul Islam Mahmud and Ruhul Amin Howlader began preparations to hold the conference outside the central party office in Kakrail, engaging district-level leaders for support. Chunnu supported this decision.
This group also attempted to bring together leaders of various parties that had broken away from the Jatiya Party over the years, and reached out to those from the Raushan Ershad-led faction.
Their goal was to unite against Quader, arguing that the party needed to become stronger through collective leadership, especially in light of increasing dissatisfaction with Quader’s alliance with the past Awami League governments.
At the core of the movement was the desire to cleanse the party of its image of “autocrat’s ally”.
Anisul said Quader wanted to control everything by himself.
“The main issue is dictatorship and authoritarianism. If our party is authoritarian, there’s no use talking about democracy,” he said.
Aware of the effort to oust him, Quader told bdnews24.com: “They can’t eliminate the Jatiya Party, so their policy is to join the upcoming elections without GM Quader. The BNP and Jamaat want the Awami League gone, and they also want to sideline the Jatiya Party. Since they can’t get rid of it, they want a Jatiya Party without me.”
In retaliation, Quader announced a rally outside the party’s central office on Jun 28.
However, Anisul and Ruhul stepped back and called on Quader to announce a new date for the council.
They said, “We urge the chairman to move on from his stubbornness and authoritarian behaviour, and honour the legacy of our party’s founder HM Ershad by immediately announcing a new date for the council.”
When asked about this, Anisul told bdnews24.com: “After the China Centre was cancelled, we planned to hold the council in Kakrail. But then the chairman announced a rally there. So for now, we are not organising the council.”
On behalf of Quader, Shameem said: “We’ve postponed the council. We will let you know about the new date later. For now, there are no programmes.”
Although both sides appeared to step back slightly, tensions within the party only briefly cooled. Within a week, Quader took this significant step, signalling that the leadership struggle is far from over.
