JP moves to curtail party chairman’s special powers

The Jatiya Party is considering curtailing the special powers of its chairman mentioned in the party charter.

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

“We yesterday decided to amend 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 make the final decision about the amendment, he said after the meeting at the office of Raushan Ershad, deputy leader of the opposition in parliament.

Ranga added that the section would be made more democratic through the 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 remain the chairman, he added. 

Hours after the meeting, Quader wrote to Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, urging her to make Raushan the leader of the opposition. The post fell vacant after former JP chairman HM Ershad died on July 14.

The Speaker later told journalists that she would take measures accordingly.

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

Talking to reporters, he claimed 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 became vacant after the death of Ershad.

Earlier at a press conference at the JP chairman’s Banani office, Ranga said the two feuding groups of the party finally reached an understanding 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. 

“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.

Ranga said there are some leaders in every party who want to fish in troubled waters, and create divisions for 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.

At a press conference on July 18, Ranga formally declared Ershad’s younger brother Quader the 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, a component of the 20-party alliance, as its candidate to contest the Rangpur-3 by-polls scheduled for 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.