Islami Oikya Jote leaves BNP-led 20-Party alliance

The Islami Oikya Jote has announced it is leaving the BNP-led 20-Party alliance.

Chairman Abdul Latif Nezami on Thursday said his party would pursue an independent course in politics from now on.

“That’s why we are leaving the 20-Party alliance. We are not in the coalition anymore,” he said while addressing the party’s triennial council at the Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh auditorium at Dhaka’s Ramna.

Nezami and Mufti Md Fayezullah were re-elected chairman and secretary general at the council.

Last year, Sheikh Shawkat Hossain Nilu-led National People’s Party (NPP) left the alliance after it fell out with its coalition partners.

On Jan 6, 1999, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia announced the formation of a Four-Party alliance with the HM Ershad-led Jatiya Party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the IOJ to launch a movement against the then Awami League-led government.

Since then, the IOJ has been a part of the BNP-led front that later grew into the present 20-Party alliance. The party had won two seats in Parliament in the 2001 elections.

Last year, the National People’s Party (NPP), led by Sheikh Shawkat Hossain Nilu, left the alliance over differences with its coalition partners.

But another faction of the party remained in the alliance.

Nezami, who became IOJ’s chief after the death of its chairman Fazlul Haque Amini in December 2012, said on Thursday, “Ulamas need to be united, and they have, therefore, decided to act independently.”