Chief_Adviser
Number of posts : 615
Age : 40
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Registration date : 2008-06-10
 |  Subject: Day-long drama ends in JP-AL split............  Thu Dec 11, 2008 7:29 am | |
|  A day-long drama, which included meetings of Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina and Jatiya Party chairman Hussein Muhammad Ershad and his presidium members, ended in a seemingly irreparable split between the two parties.
"Even if they (AL) offer us 70 seats or 80 seats, there's no going back," an angry Ershad told reporters emerging from a meeting of the party's policy-making body.
"We have taken a formal decision," the JP chief said.
"From the way the negotiations were going, it was clear that AL itself did not want us to stay," the former general said.
AL presidium member Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, in an immediate reaction to the JP announcement, blamed JP for the split.
"Jatiya Party itself created the problem. They will have to solve it," said the AL leader.
"In the last dialogue with JP, a deal was made for 41 seats. AL had issued letters for withdrawal of our candidates from those seats," Selim told waiting reporters in front of Sheikh hasina's Sudha Sadan residence.
JP presidium member Kazi Zafar Ahmed told the press after the presidium meeting broke up Wednesday: "We decided not to go with the Grand Alliance. The alliance has been broken."
"We won't accept 41 seats, not even 101 seats if offered now. We have lost belief in them," he said.
He alleged JP had become victim to a "political conspiracy".
"We wanted to be part of a government formed by the Grand Alliance."
JP secretary general ABM Ruhul Amin Hawlader said: "We have discussed matters with AL over a long period. There was no lack of will on our part."
"We had said many times that we were in the Grand Alliance. But how many times did AL say it?"
"We requested them not to field their own candidates in our seats. But they ignored our request," Hawlader claimed.
"That was why we were compelled to take this decision."
The JP leaders became vociferous after Ershad left the scene. They began uttering loudly comments such as: "AL breaks promises" and "AL did not heed us".
Retired brigadier general and JP leader Mahmudul Hasan threatened his fellow party leaders.
"Nobody better go near Sudha Sadan," he said.
"If they do, their legs will be broken!"
Another presidium member, Golam Moshi, echoed his colleagues.
Another presidium member, who was also present in the meeting but spoke anonymously, said: "The Awami League has betrayed us."
"This is a clear-cut betrayal."
Ershad had earlier in the day given rise to doubts on the state of the alliance, following a two-hour meeting with Hasina in which disputes over seat sharing appeared to remain unresolved.
The JP chief, emerging from a two-hour meeting with Hasina at her Sudha Sadan home, said a "final decision" on seat-sharing had yet to be made between the two parties.
"We haven't yet made any final decision on seat-sharing and we'll let you know in the evening about the final status of the alliance," Ershad said at around 3.30pm.
The former president called the meeting of the party presidium just hours later. | |
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