Most of the lawmakers-elect of the Jatiya Party yesterday said the party should join the Awami League-led new government.

The opinion came at a joint meeting of JP presidium members and MPs-elect at the party chief's Banani office, JP Co-chairman GM Quader told reporters after the meeting.

The party's parliamentary body will decide its role in the 11th parliament.

“Our newly elected MPs will join the parliamentary party meeting tomorrow [today] after taking the oath,” Quader added.

Meanwhile, the oath-taking ceremony of MPs-elect will be held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban today, said a parliament secretariat press release yesterday. 

At 11:00am, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury will administer the oath.

At the briefing, Quader said, “The parliamentary party meeting will decide what will be the Jatiya Party's role in parliament, considering the interest of the country and the grand alliance."

He added that they would talk about the issue with the alliance after the meeting.

“We are in the grand alliance and contested the election with the alliance partners with identical goals. So, we'll finalise all the decisions through discussions."

The JP co-chairman, who presided over yesterday's meeting, said they discussed the country's political situation at the joint meeting.

Party Secretary General Moshiur Rahman Ranga said they would take some organisational steps to strengthen the party.

He added that parliamentary party members would sit with the AL-led grand alliance to determine the party's role in parliament.

JP Chairman HM Ershad and Senior Co-chairman Raushan Ershad were not present at the meeting.

On Tuesday, Moshiur said they would decide yesterday whether they would remain as the opposition or part of government in the House.

OFFICIAL POLLS RESULTS

In another development, the Election Commission yesterday in its official results said the AL bagged 257 seats and the JP 22 seats in Sunday's national election.

Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda at a post-election press conference on Monday and EC Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed at the end of announcement of unofficial results of the polls said the AL won in 259 constituencies and the JP in 20.

EC officials said they made the mistake while preparing the list of all winning candidates hurriedly.

The commission yesterday published a gazette notification of all 298 winning candidates.

According to the official results of the December 30 polls, the AL-led grand alliance bagged 288 seats while the BNP-led Jatiya Oikyafront got seven.

Voting was suspended at three polling stations in Brahmanbaria-2 over violence. Voting in those centres will be held on January 9.

Election in Gaibandha-3 was rescheduled for January 27 after Oikyafront candidate TIM Fazley Rabbi died on December 20.

Bangladesh Jatiya Party Chairman Andaleeve Rahman Partha yesterday announced that his party left the BNP-led alliance amid disputes over the BNP’s decision to join parliament.

“My party is no longer a part of the alliance,” Partha told The Daily Star last night.

Partha’s BJP joined the BNP-led alliance in 1999 to strengthen the opposition against the then Awami League government. In 2001 election, the BNP-led alliance won a landslide victory, but lost in 2008. The BNP-led four-party alliance expanded to a 20-party alliance in 2012.

People were surprised when two Gonoforum MPs-elect and four BNP MPs-elect took oath, he said in a statement.

“None of the parties [of the alliance], except the BNP, has any sort of involvement with the decision…. Through this oath-taking, the BNP and Oikyafront lost the moral right to reject the farcical December 30 election,” it added.

Since the formation of Jatiya Oikyafront, political activities of the BNP-led alliance became stagnant, he alleged.

Andaleeve Rahman Partho, chairman of Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP), one of the components of BNP-led 20-party alliance, today announced to stay aside from the coalition.

Partho made the announcement in a written statement this evening. In the statement, he stated that the oath of BNP lawmakers as the members of the 11th parliament as one of the major reasons behind the decision.

BNP-led four-party alliance was formed in 1999 to strengthen the movement against the then Awami League-led government. In 2001 election, the BNP-led alliance won a landslide victory, but got a debacle in 2008 election.

Later in 2012, the four-party alliance was expanded to 20-party alliance.

Partho contested the December 30 national election with BNP’s electoral symbol “Sheaf of Paddy” from Bhola-1 parliamentary constituency and failed to secure victory in the electoral race.

In his statement, the BJP chief claimed that the organisational activists of the 20-party alliance have weakened alarmingly.

Clarifying the causes of behind his standing aside from the alliance, Partho said, “After the farcical and stage-managed December 30 national election, the 20-party alliance on principal rejected the polls results. Later, two from Jatiya Oikyafront and five from BNP MPs-elect took oath as members of the 11th parliament.”

“No political components of the 20-party alliance except BNP was involved with the decision of taking oath. And like the countrymen, Bangladesh Jatiya Party has got astonished and shocked for this,” Partho said.

BNP and Jatiya Oikyafront have lost their moral rights to reject the results of the December 30 national election through taking part in the 11th parliament, he said.

“In the context of the prevailing politics of the 20-party alliance, JBP is coming out of all political and organisational activities of the coalition,” Partho said.