& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Post-polls JP drama unfolds

Raushan leader of the opposition?

Rashidul Hasan
The Jatiya Party seems poised to stage a fresh drama - this time over joining parliament as the main opposition.
JP Senior Presidium Member Raushan Ershad, who led a section of party leaders to participate in Sunday's polls, held a series of meetings with party leaders yesterday, to determine the next course of action.
The meetings discussed the issues of taking oath and its role as the main opposition party in the 10th parliament, insiders said. One such meeting between Raushan and the six JP MPs-elect decided that Raushan would lead the party as leader of the opposition, Kazi Firoz Rashid, MP-elect from Dhaka-6, told The Daily Star yesterday.
After the meeting at Raushan's Gulshan residence, Firoz said: "As our chairman HM Ershad was against joining the polls race and did not participate in it, we will join parliament under the leadership of Raushan as she is the senior most leader in the Jatiya Party after sir [ Ershad]."
He added that as the JP had bagged the second highest number of seats (33) in the election, it was natural that it would sit on the opposition benches and that Raushan would be the opposition leader.
Firoz said they were already communicating with the ruling party regarding the issue.
However, Ruhul Amin Howlader, another MP-elect from the JP, said he knew nothing about joining the House or about becoming the opposition in parliament.
"I don't know whether the JP lawmakers-elect will take oath or not because there hasn't been any decision to this end," he said, adding that they would follow party chief Ershad's instructions in this regard.
On winning from Patuakhali-1, he said he did
not campaign and that he just went to his village home to offer prayers at the graves of his parents.
Sixty-six JP leaders participated in the election despite Ershad's instructions to all party candidates to withdraw their candidacies. On December 3 last year, he announced that his party would not take part in the polls, citing lack of a conducive environment for an inclusive election.
Raushan, however, took part in the polls along with a section of party leaders, including Kazi Firoz, Anisul Islam Mahmud and Ziauddin Ahmed, who are known to have close ties with the government.
Thirteen JP leaders, including Ershad, won in the race. Twenty others were elected unopposed.
Ershad's JP is well-known for staging various dramas. The latest was its participation in the election despite Ershad's announcement of a boycott.
In early November, he said his party would not join the polls race if all parties did not participate in it. Then in mid-November, his party quit the AL-led grand alliance and joined the Sheikh Hasina-led polls-time government.
On the same day, he also announced that JP would independently take part in the polls for the sake of democracy. But he changed his mind again on December 3 to announce the boycott.
On the night of December 12, he was picked up by personnel of an intelligence agency and was taken to the Combined Military Hospital under Rab escort. He is still at the CMH.
Rab officials claimed Ershad was taken there for treatment, but Ershad in a statement later said the government had kept him confined for his refusal to take part in the election.
JP MEN ANNOYED
Party men in Lalmonirhat-1 are annoyed that Ershad has lost there due to "vote rigging" by the AL men.
They said they did not go to vote but the AL men cast fake votes for Ershad only to humiliate him.
Golam Mostafa, president of Hatibandha upazila JP, said: "AL men did it only to destroy our chiefs image in the area. We didn't do any campaign in favour of Ershad before the election. There was no poster. But he still got 7,000 votes."
He added that all the party leaders visited different areas before the election and instructed party men not to vote and they ensured that they would not go to the polling centres as Ershad had boycotted the election.
"So it's certain that it was AL men who cast some votes in favour of Ershad to defame him," he added.