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Published : 10 Aug 2025, 02:41 AM
In the familiar cycle of breakups and reconciliations, two factions of the Jatiya Party have once again come together, but only partially.
Supporters of GM Quader, younger brother and political successor to the party’s founder and former military ruler HM Ershad, insist they remain the “mainstream” Jatiya Party.
Although the latest gathering was billed as a “unity council”, it stopped short of merging the faction led by Anisul Islam Mahmud with other splinter groups.
Instead, the event marked the formal emergence of another bloc in the party -- the Anisul-Raushon faction.
This means the Jatiya Party has now endured its sixth major split, even within a supposed unification process.
Raushon is late chairman Ershad’s estranged wife. She was named co-chairman after Ershad’s death in 2019 and as the leader of the official opposition in parliament. Its Chairman GM Quader was chosen as the deputy leader.
Anisul accused Quader of deliberately avoiding an open contest for leadership.
“On the 28th of June you (Quader) said you would hold a council,” he said. “If there had been a genuine intention to do so, it could have been done the way it was done today. But once you realised we would contest, you avoided holding it.”
Pointing to the Anisul-Raushon alliance, Jatiya Party Secretary General for the GM Quader faction, Shamim Haider Patwary, told an event: “History shows that those who have tried to damage the Jatiya Party by going outside the mainstream have themselves been wiped out.
“The followers of HM Ershad and GM Quader will foil all conspiracies against the Jatiya Party.”
ANISUL-RAUSHON FACTION
The last national conference of the Jatiya Party was held on Dec 28, 2019.
Internal rifts leading up to the 12th parliamentary election, however, triggered a new wave of division.
In March 2024, a faction led by Raushon -- the party’s chief patron and widow of its founder -- organised a separate council and formed a parallel committee.
Her supporters declared it the party’s 10th national council.
At the time, Quader, the party’s official chairman, rejected the move and insisted his faction remained the party’s legitimate leadership.
After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on Aug 5 last year, the Jatiya Party, known for its ties with the Awami League, became politically marginalised.
That shift sparked renewed tension within the party.
As a result, after six years, a conference was held on Saturday at the Emmanuelle’s Convention Hall in Dhaka by former Quader allies Anisul, Chunnu, ABM Ruhul Amin Howlader, alongside Raushon supporters Kazi Firoz Rashid Chowdhury and Sayed Abu Hossain Babla.
Quader and his followers did not attend.
At the council, Anisul was elected chairman of the party, while Ruhul was chosen as secretary general.
Both were formerly part of Quader’s leadership -- Anisul serving as senior co-chairman and Ruhul as co-chairman.
In the council’s second session, Mohammad Jahirul Islam, convenor of the three-strong election commission, announced the newly elected chairman and general secretary.
The other commission members were Mostafa Al Mahmud and Arifur Rahman Khan.
Roughly 3,000 councillors from across the country cast their votes by voice to elect Anisul and Ruhul to the top posts.
Kazi Firoz Rashid, a senior Raushon supporter and former executive chairman, was named senior co-chairman.
Chunnu, who had served as secretary general under Quader, was appointed executive chairman.
With these appointments, the factions led by Anisul and Raushon formally united under a single leadership.
HOW THE NEW TURMOIL BEGAN
On Jul 7, Quader removed 10 senior leaders from their posts, including Anisul, Ruhul and Chunnu.
The trio later sought legal recourse.
On Jul 31, a court issued a temporary injunction preventing Quader and Joint Office Secretary Mahmud Alam from performing any organisational duties.
Later, a statement signed by MA Razzak Khan, the office secretary removed by Quader, announced that Anisul was appointed as the acting chairman of the Jatiya Party.
Three days later, at a briefing in the hall room of Hawladar Tower on Gulshan Avenue, Anisul, Ruhul and Chunnu appeared together to announce the upcoming party conference.
They said the court order had reinstated them to their positions and restricted Quader from engaging in party affairs.
Opening the briefing, Chunnu said the decision to hold the national conference was taken urgently at a presidium meeting to “free the party from organisational paralysis”.
He added that the Jatiya Party, which had recently been mired in confusion, was now re-emerging with a message of “responsibility, discipline and unity” through this new initiative.
HOW ANISUL, RUHUL CAME TO LEADERSHIP
The party founded by former military ruler Ershad has been in a difficult position since the fall of the Awami League government last year.
A section of senior leaders, aiming to free the party from the “sin” of close ties with the Awami League, recently attempted to remove Quader from leadership, putting Jatiya Party at risk of another split.
The Quader-led faction had set the date for the national conference at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre (BCFCC) on Jun 28.
The authorities later said that permission could not be granted because the chief advisor had a programme on that date. Consequently, Quader postponed the conference.
Before this, Anisul and Ruhul started coordinating with district-level leaders to hold a conference outside the party’s central office in Kakrail. Chunnu was also with them.
They worked to unite top leaders of several parties formed by former Jatiya Party members on one platform to establish unity.
For this purpose, they also contacted leaders of the faction led by Raushon.
In response to the opposition’s conference plans, Quader announced a grand rally in front of the party’s main office on Jun 28 to show his strength.
However, ultimately, both sides backed down, and neither the conference nor the rally took place at the central office.
Subsequently, Anisul, Chunnu, Ruhul Amin, and seven others were relieved of their positions in the party and moved to court afterwards.
Among some party workers, there is a widely held belief that to ensure the party’s participation in the upcoming national election amid adverse conditions, leadership changes are necessary. Since Quader’s role during the previous Awami League government raised many questions, they feel the party must be strengthened through collective leadership by involving old and inactive leaders.
Primarily, Anisul and Ruhul were pushing for holding the central conference to free the party from the label of being “henchmen of fascists”.
In light of this, Anisul and Chunnu apologised to the nation at Saturday’s conference.
Anisul had already made it clear that Quader wants to do “everything alone”, seeking a change from that.
“The main issue is autocracy and dictatorship. We want to remove that from the party. If dictatorship remains in the party, talking about democracy is useless.”
He himself understood that a process had begun to form new leadership in the party without Quader.
On Jun 20, he told bdews24.com: “The Jatiya Party cannot be excluded. So the government’s policy for the upcoming election is to make Quader ‘minus’ in the Jatiya Party.
“The BNP and Jamaat will not let the Awami League remain. They also wanted to exclude the Jatiya Party, but since they couldn’t, they sought Quader to be ‘minus’.
“They are saying that if we hold a council and submit it to the Election Commission, the plough symbol will get its recognition.”
SPLITS WITHIN THE PARTY
The first major split in the Jatiya Party came after the fall of Ershad during the 1990 mass uprising.
Under the leadership of Shamsul Huda Chowdhury and MA Matin, a breakaway faction emerged, which later became active as Bangladesh Jatiya Party (Matin).
In 1997, the party saw its second split, led by Anwar Hossain Manju and Sheikh Shahidul Islam. This faction is now known as Jatiya Party (JP).
A third division followed in 2001 under the leadership of Naziur Rahman.
Matin joined this faction for a time but later revived his own as Bangladesh Jatiya Party (Matin).
Naziur’s group, rebranded as Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP), is currently led by his son Andaleeve Rahman Partho.
In December 2013, before the controversial Jan 5, 2014 election, the party fractured again through a special council that brought Kazi Zafar Ahmed to the helm of a fourth splinter group.
Following Ershad’s death, yet another division took place on Apr 20, 2024, this time led by his widow Raushon.
