Jatiya Party (JP) chairman Hussain Muhammad Ershad said on Tuesday that his party was going to contest the national election on its own, snapping ties with the ruling 14-party alliance at any time. “Politics is now a matter of tactics. We have to win the fight for power. Nobody used to enquire about us in the past. But now everyone is taking us into account. So, we’ll tell the 14-party alliance that we are not with them,” the former President said.
Ershad was speaking as chief guest at the reunion of the former Jatiya Chhatra Samaj Forum at the Diploma Engineers’ Institute in the city, with its president SM Foysal Chisti in the chair.
“The JP will contest the national election independently. No one wants to see the two main political parties, the Awami League and the BNP, in power. Get set. We will win,” Ershad told his party’s student front activists.
About the Gonojagoron Mancha, he said: “The Shahbagh movement split the nation into two. I told Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to stop them. Now she is paying for it. The country has now been divided into theists and atheists.”
Criticising government action against Hefazat-e-Islami Bangladesh (HIB), he said: “You will find no precedence of enforcing a shutdown on a public holiday in any country. The incumbent government, however, imposed a strike on Friday to resist HIB.”
Referring to election symbols of the Awami League and BNP, he said: “Boat and sheaf of paddy have become symbols of vengeance and conflict. But plough has become the symbol of peace. People will look for the candidates of Jatiya Party in the next election. They will vote for the JP.”
Feeling unwell owing to his emotional speech, Ershad said: “My doctor has advised me to speak slowly, but I cannot remain silent. Fire is burning in my heart. How can I put it out? The fire will die down when the JP comes to power.”
Taking vow on the blood of former student leaders of the Chhatra Somaj, he said: “We will seek justice for the blood of former leaders of the Chhatra Samaj. We will save the nation from government repression. We will bring the JP to power.”
About the tender manipulation of the Chhatra League, he said: “Educational institutions have turned into war zones. The Awami League’s student organisation has become the ‘tender league’. We handed pens to the students; others gave them arms. This situation will change when the JP assumes power.”
JP presidium member Kazi Zafar Ahmed, secretary general ABM Ruhul Amin Howlader, Prof. Delwar Hossain, Abul Kashem and Advocate Sirajul Islam spoke on the occasion.
-With The Independent input
