Jatiya Party (Ershad) Chairman GM Quader on Saturday said that his party was compelled to participate in the 12th general polls amid ‘pressure’.
“Although the Jatiya Party decided to boycott the polls, it was compelled to revise the decision amid pressure,” Quader, also opposition leader in Parliament, said while addressing an extended meeting of the party at Engineers Institution of Bangladesh in the capital.
Quader, elected from Rangpur-3 constituency, has been made the leader of opposition in the 12th parliament.
The meeting was convened amid a split developed in the party that clung to power by joining the AL-led grand alliance till 2018. Though it became the main opposition in 2014, some of its leaders were in the cabinet led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Amid criticism at home and abroad, the party refrained from sharing the cabinet after 2018 polls. But some party leaders, loyal to AL, maintained good relations with the government.
The Jatiya Party, founded by former military dictator HM Ershad, experienced several factions due to bickering over leaderships. And the latest one emerged following the party’s debacle in the last general polls.
