Eyeing on the January 2024 general elections in Bangladesh, military dictator Hussain Muhammed Ershad’s pro-Islamist Jatiya Party (JP) is secretly continuing serious conspiracy against the ruling Awami League. Although this party has not yet gone into extinct due to unimaginable favor extended by the ruling party, several leaders of this party are maintaining discreet connections with a number of anti-Bangladesh elements such as Zulkarnain Saer Khan Sami, Tasneem Khalil, Shahid Uddin Khan, Lt Col Mustafizur Rahman, Hasinur Rahman, Kanak Sawrwar, Abdur Rab Bhuttaw and others. Another source said, Jatiyo Party leaders are maintaining communications with Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) with the hope of forming electoral alliance only if BNP would agree to leave at least 100 seats to it during the election.
Meanwhile, Jatiya Party (JP) Chairman GM Quader held a meeting with European Union (EU) Ambassador Charles Whiteley and other ambassadors of the member states of the EU. Ambassadors of Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, France were present in the meeting. Secretary General of JP Mujibul Huq Chunnu and Special Envoy to the Chairman Masrur Mawla attended the meeting.
According to sources, the upcoming national elections were discussed mainly in the meeting. The ambassadors wanted to know the position of the Jatiya Party in during upcoming elections.
In response, the Jatiya Party chairman GM Quader outlined his party’s position.
Ambassadors wanted to know whether JP would participate in the election under the current government. They also wanted to know JP’s opinion about opposition’s demand of holding the next general elections under caretaker government.
GM Quader told the ambassadors that his party (Jatiya Party) feels that the current government has become an authoritarian regime. If an election is held under them, it will become a one-sided election. He said caretaker government system is also not entirely correct.
Jatiya Party has not taken any final decision on what system of elections will be acceptable to all. In the next few days, it will be finalized after discussing with the leaders and workers of all levels of the party.
Quader said, he cannot take unilateral decision regarding boycotting the next general election if that is held under the current government. For this he needs to discuss with party leaders.
According to sources, the ambassadors also wanted to know about some party matters of the Jatiya Party – the party’s explanation has been presented in this regard.
It may be mentioned here that, Jatiyo Party believes in transforming Bangladesh into an Islamic republic while its founder, military dictator Hussain Muhammed Ershad gave Islam the status of state religion. During the past 14 years, several Jatiyo Party leaders, including many of the Presidium members have amassed unimaginable wealth while some of them had smuggled-out millions of dollars overseas including the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia.
JP leaders spreading rumor
According to sources, several front-ranking leaders of Jatiya Party are actively involved in spreading rumor against the ruling party, while few of them are tactfully misleading people by participating in TV talk shows.
