AL, JaPa leaders meet again

The ruling Awami League (AL) and the Jatiya Party (JaPa) met on Tuesday evening regarding the upcoming national elections.

Senior leaders from both parties attended the two-and-a-half-hour meeting after 7:00pm in a house in Banani of Dhaka, sources familiar with the matter told The Business Standard.

"Discussions were held on how to continue the festive atmosphere that has been created across the country and how to conduct fair elections," AL leader Jahangir Kabir Nanak told TBS confirming the matter.

He also said the discussion will continue.

"There might be more discussions tomorrow and the day after."

The development comes hours after JaPa's chief patron Raushan Ershad met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the president of AL, and urged the latter to avoid any alliance or negotiation with the party.

Raushan, accompanied by her son Saad Ershad, met with the premier at the Gonobhaban.

The JaPa leader, who boycotted the election following a rift with the party's Chairman GM Quader, told the prime minister that if the ruling party seeks any negotiation with the Jatiya Party, they should engage with her supporters, TBS reported on Monday. 

However, Jatiya Party leaders claim that Raushan, wife of party founder HM Ershad, has no authority to make decisions on the party's behalf. But she can meet the prime minister, who is also the president of the Awami League. They also emphasised that the Jatiya Party is not involved in any election alliance.

The dispute between two groups of the Jatiya Party, led by Raushan and Quader, has continued ahead of the national elections.

Neither Raushan nor any of her supporters have collected the forms by the deadline.

The rift has also become a matter of unease for the ruling AL, which expects the JaPa to contest the elections, even though the two are not part of any alliance this time around.

After a programme on Tuesday, AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader told reporters that the ruling party and the public are worried about whether JaPa will join the polls or not.

However, in a party programme on the same day, JaPa Secretary General Mujibul Haque Chunnu said his party has joined the polls and that the party will see it through.

He also said JaPa will field candidates in all 300 seats.

Obaidul Quader led the AL team in Tuesday's meeting with JaPa where the party's praesidium member Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Joint General Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim and Organising Secretary Mirza Azam were present, said a source.

On the other hand, Mujibul Haque Chunnu and Anisul Islam Mahmud were present from the JaPa, said a second source.

Earlier this month, senior leaders of the AL and the JaPa held a meeting in a Gulshan hotel on 6 December.