JP moves to curtail party chairman’s special power

The Jatiya Party is considering curtailing the “special power” of the party’s chairman mentioned in the party’s charter.

The charter says its chairman can form, re-constitute, and scrap any committee at any level even if the action goes against the other parts of the constitution.

“We yesterday decided to amend the section 20/1/Ka of the party’s constitution that empowers its chairman to make any decision unilaterally,” JP Secretary General Moshiur Rahman Ranga told reporters after the meeting of Jatiya Party Parliamentary Party (JPPP).

The party council slated for November 30 will take the final decision about the amendment, he said after the meeting at office of Raushan Ershad, deputy leader of the opposition in parliament.

Ranga added that the section would be made more democratic through amendment. But he did not elaborate further in this regard.

The JPPP also decided that Raushan would be the leader of the opposition in parliament and GM Quader would act as the party’s chairman, Ranga said.

He added that Quader would write toSpeaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, urging her to makeRaushan the leader of the opposition, which fell vacant after the death of her husband and former JP chairman HM Ershad.

Twenty-four JP lawmakers out of 25 opposition MPs were present at the meeting, Ranga said.

Talking to reporters, he claimed that there is no more conflict in the JP now.

He added that the party would nominate Ershad’s son Saad Ershad to contest the by-polls to Rangpur-3, which fell vacant after the death of Ershad on July 14.

Earlier at a press conference at the JP chairman’s Banani office, Ranga said the two feuding groups of the party finally reached a consensus to keep the party united, accepting Quader as its chairman and Raushan the leader of the opposition in parliament.

Amid conflict over the posts of party chairman and leader of the opposition, the leaders loyal to Quader and Raushan had a meeting at a city hotel on Saturday night and made some decisions to avoid a split in the party.

“The Jatiya Party is now united as there’s now no division in it. We had a controversy over the post of our party chairman, and we resolved it yesterday [Saturday]. GM Quader will act as the chairman as per the directive of our late founder chairman HM Ershad,” Ranga said.

He added that their party averted a split following the meeting of some of its top leaders on Saturday night.

Ranga said there are some leaders in every party who want to fish in troubled waters, and create divisions to make their personal gains. “But we’ve been able to remove the division and we’re now united.”

A day after Quader’s letter for officially recognising him as the leader of the opposition, JP Senior Co-chairman Raushan on Wednesday wrote to the Speaker not to accept it, exposing a fresh conflict in the party.

In the letter sent to the Speaker, Raushan said Quader sent the letter without any decision at the party forum and meeting of the JPPP.

On Thursday, a group of JP leaders declared Raushan its chairperson, putting the party on the verge of a split.

The party leaders, loyal to Raushan, also claimed that Quader was declared the party chairman, violating the party constitution.

At a separate press conference on that day, Quader warned of taking action in line with the party constitution against those who announced that Raushan would be party chairperson.

At a press conference on July 18, Ranga formally announced that Ershad’s younger brother Quader would be party chairman.

Ranga said before his death, Ershad through an organisational instruction announced that Quader would be the party chairman in his absence. 

Four days later, Raushan in a statement said Quader could not be declared the party chairman without any decision at the party forum.

BNP PICKS RITA FOR RANGPUR-3

The BNP yesterday picked Rita Rahman, chief of People’s Party of Bangladesh, one of the components of the 20-party alliance, as its candidate to contest the Rangpur-3 by-polls scheduled to be held on October 5.

Party Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi made the announcement at a press conference at the party’s Nayapaltan central office yesterday.

He said Rita is the daughter of BNP founder member Moshiur Rahman Jadu Mia.