A Jamaat-e-lslami leader, who claimed to have defected from the party, joined the election campaign for senior Awami League leader Mahbubul Alam Hanif in Kushtia on Monday night and sought votes for the ruling party candidate in the January 5 elections.

Nawsher Ali, president of pro-Jamaat labour organisation Sramik Kalyan Federation's Kushtia district unit, and a rokon (policy-level leader) of the district Jamaat, said he had left Jamaat as the party's "past and present were not good and its activities were anti-Islam".

He, however, denied joining the Awami League, which faces the wrath of Jamaat for putting its top brass in trial for war crimes in 1971.

Taizal Ali Khan, president of Kushtia town AL, however, said Nawseher left Jamaat for the party's past and present role in the country and joined the AL. Awami Jubo League organised the election campaign in Housing area of the district town for Hanif, joint general secretary of the AL and a candidate from Kushtia-3 constituency (Sadar upazila). Nawsher presented Hanif with a bouquet and shook hand with him there.

When asked, Hanif told The Daily Star over the phone, “If Jamaat leaders who were not involved in war crimes leave the party, Awami League will cleanse them and show them the right path." But he declined to answer when asked about Nawsher's joining AL.

Nawsher told The Daily Star, “I have left Jamaat but had not joined any party."

This correspondent tried to contact top Jamaat leaders in the district but found their mobile phones switched off.