Islami Oikya Jote, a founding partner of the BNP-led 20-party alliance, yesterday quit the political combine.
However, hours after that announcement came, two former members of the Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ) said that the IOJ was still with the alliance.
During its triennial council at the Institution of Engineers Bangladesh auditorium yesterday evening, IOJ chief Abdul Latif Nejami announced that they were severing their long-time ties with the BNP.
He said strengthening the party’s orgnisation was more important that staying in the BNP-Jamaat-led alliance.
Hours later, another faction of the IOJ held a press conference at the Gulshan office of Khaleda Zia – BNP chairperson and head of the alliance – and announced that the IOJ was still with the alliance.
At the press conference held yesterday evening, Abdur Rakib, senior vice-chairman of IOJ, told journalists that the a meeting of the party’s highest policymaking body, Majlish-e-Shura, held on Wednesday at its Purana Paltan central office decided to stay with the 20-party alliance.
Rakib also accused Chairman Nejami of acting against the party’s interest and said that as per the party’s charter, Nejami and his followers were automatically expelled for that.
He claimed that he was now the chairman of the party because Nejami had been expelled.
This comes just two days after the BNP staged a major political programme in Dhaka on Tuesday after a long time. The BNP did not invite any of its alliance partners to take part in the rally at Nayapaltan.
Earlier, Abdul Latif Nejami said they did not have any grievances against anyone, nor were they under pressure from any quarters.
The decision to quit comes from a realisation that now is the time to unite the Islamist parties and religious scholars in the political field, said Nejami.
BNP’s Senior Vice-Chairman Maj (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed alleged that IOJ’s departure was part of a government conspiracy hatched to create rifts in the opposition alliance. “The evil design to split the alliance will not be successful,” he affirmed. Maj Hafiz also said in a programme at the National Press Club yesterday that the BNP itself was enough to bring the government down through movement.
“From now on, Islami Oikya Jote will do politics independently. That is why were are quitting the 20-party alliance. We are no more a part of the alliance,” Nejami said.
“Islami Oikya Jote will from now on concentrate on organisational activities while also upholding its individuality as a party and take preparation for competing in all 300 constituencies in the next national elections,” he said.
The 20-party alliance first came into being as a four-party electoral combine in January 1999 and IOJ was one of the founding partners.
Alongside the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, the other partner of that alliance was Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP), an offshoot of the HM Ershad-led Jatiya Party.
