The tussle between Jatiya Party (JP) chairman H M Ershad and his wife and lawmaker Raushan Ershad seems to be deepening as suggested by a latest show of defiance by the latter.
A JP parliamentary team led by Raushan visited the National Martyrs Memorial in Savar yesterday without the party chief.
On every important occasion, politicians in Bangladesh visit the memorial to pay tributes to the 1971 Liberation War heroes.
The JP team was to visit the memorial on January 15 but the programme was deferred on the order of Ershad.
It was earlier decided that while Ershad will look after the party, Raushan will decide affairs of the lawmakers.
Rift between Ershad and Raushan, also party presidium member and the leader of the opposition, had become open ahead of elections to the reserved seats for women in the parliament, party insiders said.
JP presidium member and lawmaker Kazi Feroz Rashid said that Ershad would decide only the party matters and Raushan would make decisions on parliamentary affairs.
Emerging from a meeting at Raushan’s Gulshan house,Rashid said on Saturday that the lawmakers would visit the memorial yesterday morning.
Party secretary general Ruhul Amin Hawlader, however, said he and Ershad were in the dark about the decision.
Earlier in the week, Ershad appointed presidium member GM Quader and secretary general Ruhul as the party’s spokespersons in place of Rashid.
Asked about selecting the candidates for the reserved seats for women in parliament, Hawlader said: “Interview would be taken on Monday. Party high-ups will decide finally.”
Hawlader, considered close to Ershad, said that the party chief wanted to nominate women to six reserved seats loyal to him while Raushan was trying to do the opposite.
“Sir (the JP chief) also wants to nominate his younger sister Marina Rahman and GM Quader’s wife Sherifa Quader, but madam (Raushan) is strongly opposing it,” he said.