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Rizvi meets Ershad

65 JP aspirants get 'plough'

Staff Correspondent
Jatiya Party Chairman I IM Ershad and 64 other leaders of his party have been allotted the electoral symbol "plough" for the 10th parliamentary election although many of them were reportedly unwilling to contest the polls.
The Election Commission assigned the symbol yesterday though Ershad on Thursday requested the EC not to do so. He had cited the party's decision "to cancel the nomination papers of all its candidates."
Meanwhile, as part of the government's continued efforts to bring back the JP to the election, Prime Minister's Adviser Cowher Rizvi yesterday visited Ershad at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka. The JP chief has been in CMII since law enforcers took him there after "picking
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him up" from his Baridhara residence on December 12.
Rizvi's visit came amid disputes within the JP over their participation in the polls scheduled for January 5.
Earlier on December 3, Ershad announced his decision to boycott the election, saying a proper atmosphere was missing.
The details of the meeting between Ershad and Rizvi could not be known.
However, some JP leaders yesterday told The Daily Star that they would have to contest the polls whether the party chief wanted or not, as many of their candidates either did not or could not withdraw nomination papers.
"It is the reality that around 20 top JP leaders are set to be elected unopposed. How will they [party members| ignore this? The other 64 leaders, who could not withdraw their nominations, will also have to participate in
the polls," JP Presidium Member Kazi Firoz Rashid said.
A group of JP leaders, who had supported Ershad's decision to refrain from the "onesided" polls, were now trying to convince him to alter his stance, JP insiders said.
"Many of our top leaders could not withdraw their nomination papers and today [yesterday) we have been given electoral symbol. At this stage, we hardly have any scope to abstain from the polls," said a JP leader who was close to Ershad and had earlier supported his pull-out decision, wishing anonymity.
Many of the party leaders who had earlier been against contesting the polls were now keeping mum about the matter, which apparently meant they too had accepted that they did not have a choice, sources said.
Another JP leader, who too did not wish to be quoted, claimed that Ershad was not arrested and was running the party activities
from the CMH.
"Ershad delivered a statement yesterday marking the Victory Day. He also reconstituted the party's Rangpur district and city units and asked the new committee leaders to complete the committees within 10 days," he said.
"If he [Ershad| was picked up or detained, he could not run party activities publicly. Even today he promoted two leaders to the party's standing committee," he added.
Meanwhile, JP minister Anisul Islam Mahmud, who did not attend last week's cabinet meeting following Ershad's instructions, joined an inter-ministerial meeting yesterday at the secretariat.
Earlier at a press conference in Gulshan yesterday, expelled JP presidium member Kazi Zafar Ahmed said that the government was making "an unprecedented mockery" in the name of election.