Staff Reporter
Rtnn: Raushan Earshad, chairperson of the faction of the Jatiya Party (JaPa) said that the council was needed to ensure the surviuval of the party. 

 If there was no council, the party would have disappeared," she said. 

She said: “We would have lost thousands of leaders and activists. People of the country turned away from the JaPa. It was reflected in the 12th national parliamentary elections.”

Raushan Ershad has been elected chairman of her faction of the Jatiya Party, while Kazi Mamunur Rashid has been elected as the secretary general in the council. 

On Saturday, the Japa council is going on at the Engineers Institution in Ramna of the capital.

Jatiya Party Co-Chairman Kazi Firoz Rashid presided over the national council at the Institute of Engineering and Technology in Dhaka on Saturday.

Later, another presidium member of the party, Fakhruzzaman Jahangir, announced the names of other senior leaders of the party.

Raushan Ershad mentioned about the council: “Today (Saturday) is a historic day in my political life. Seeing that my beloved organization JaPa managed to organize such a historic council, my heart overflowed. I express my sincere thanks and gratitude to all the leaders and workers of Jatiya Party for organizing this council.”

She said that Ershad introduced a new style of positive politics in this country, and that politics was about to disappear. Today, through this tenth council, an opportunity has been created to re-establish Pallibandhu Ershad's principles and ideals and the politics of development, prosperity and reform.

“We have been able to establish trust in the minds of the people again through this council,” said Raushan.

"We are still surviving against many adverse conditions,” she said.

Raushan also reiterated that there is no division in Ershad's Jatiya Party. “We are one, united and will remain. Those who left the party in the past, none of them took Pallibandhu Ershad's principles. They did not even take Pallibandhu's picture with them. So I don't think the Jatiya Party has ever broken.”

She also said that as the chairperson of the party, she proposed to decentralize the power of the party instead of centralizing it.

Jatiya Party Chief Patron Raushan Ershad on January 28 declared herself as the chairman of the party, relieving the current party chief and secretary general from their posts.

She also appointed Jatiya Party presidium member Kazi Mamunur Rashid as the secretary general of the party.