Continuously at loggerheads for over a week, the two leaders of Jatiya Party (JP), HM Ershad and Raushan Ershad, are to come face to face today, Sunday.
As head of the JP parliamentary party, Raushan Ershad has called for a meeting of the parliamentary party today. Party Chairman HM Ershad has been invited to join. Pro-Ershad leaders of the party have said he will attend. The last time these to leaders met at the party’s parliamentary party meeting was on 31 August.

Patty sources say that efforts would be made at today’s meeting to reach an understanding on the contentious issue of whether or not to make the pro-Raushan leader Kazi Firoz Rashid Deputy Leader of the Opposition. The recent expulsion of pro-Raushan leaders Mashiur Rahman and Tajul Islam Chowdhury from the presidium would also be discussed. Ershad would be requested to withdraw the expulsion order of at least one of them.

JP Secretary General Ziauddin Ahmed has, however, told Prothom Alo that the agenda of today’s meeting was Jatiya Party’s role regarding the 16th Amendment Bill which had been placed in parliament.

Ershad and most of the JP MPs were present at the previous parliamentary party meeting held on 31 August.  They discussed the issue of the three Jatiya Party ministers resigning from cabinet so that the party could play the role of an actual opposition.

The two ministers and one state minister of the party were annoyed at the suggestion that they should resign. They lashed out at the party Chairman in the media.

Two pro-Raushan leaders, State Minister for Local Government Mashiur Rahman and Chief Whip of the Opposition Tajul Islam Chowdhury, told the media that a JP parliamentary party meeting had been held on 8 September and a consensus has been reached to make Kazi Firoz Rashid Deputy Leader. Raushan Ershad also sent a letter to Speaker Shireen Sharmin Chowdhury to make Kazi Firoz Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

This angered Ershad. He submitted a counter letter to the Speaker, saying that no meeting had taken place on 8 September. After this, Mashiur and Tajul again made insulting remarks about Ershad in the media. As a result, Ershad expelled both of them from the party presidium on Wednesday. The party’s Kurigram and Rangpur committees of the two leaders’ respective constituencies were also dissolved.

The next day Mashiur and Tajul misbehaved with party Secretary General Ziauddin Ahmed in the Jatiya Sangsad lobby and exchanged sharp words. In protest, the pro-Ershad leaders demonstrated against Mashiur and Tajul in front of the party’s office in Kakrail.

Setting fire to effigies: Prothom Alo’s Bogra correspondent reports that the Jatiya Party’s student wing Jatiya Chhatra Samaj held a demonstration in front of the party’s Bogra district office, demanding the expulsion of Mashiur Rahman and Tajul Islam from the party. They set fire to effigies of the two leaders.