JP (Manju) hints at joining alliance of bigger parties

The JP (Manju) leaders at their central executive committee's first general meeting yesterday put pressure on the policymakers to join the Awami League-led 14-party alliance, well-placed sources in the party said.

"We shall join an alliance...of bigger parties," Anwar Hossain Manju, chairman of the JP faction, said at the meeting held at a city hotel. He, however, did not elaborate.

Asked which these "bigger parties" are, a top JP (Manju) leader told The Daily Star, "Surely, we will join the parties that support the Liberation War of Bangladesh.

"When a party, which may be pro-Liberation in principle, includes in its alliance the anti-Liberation forces, it also becomes like-minded," the JP leader said, pointing at ruling BNP's alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami.

The JP (Manju) may also make "electoral arrangements" with small political parties like Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh and even JP (Ershad), the leader said. "We will not form an alliance with Ershad [chairman of the other JP faction], but we may make electoral arrangement with him," he said.

Indicating the JP (Ershad), Manju said parties that consider themselves "factors" will be washed away in the next elections.

"We shall do equally good, even better in some cases than these 'factors', in the next elections," he added.

Manju said no government has been able to meet the needs of the people after the fall of Ershad's regime. "And so, people are now looking for an alternative power," he said.

"What do the bigger parties have to present before the people?" Manju said, observing that the administration and judiciary have been politicised, corruption has been rampant, people are subject to repression and prices of essentials have gone beyond the capacity of lower and middle class people.

Manju asked his party leaders who came to attend the general meeting from across the country to go to people and work to gain public support for the next elections.

JP (Manju) Secretary General Sheikh Shahidul Islam, Additional Secretary General Sadeque Siddique, presidium members Shah Azizur Rahman, Amena Bari and Shah Mohammad Rafiqul Bari were present at the meeting.