Independent MPs To Form Coalition: Nixon Chowdhury

Independent lawmaker Mujibur Rahman Chowdhury, widely known as Nixon Chowdhury, on Wednesday (January 10), said that the independent lawmakers of the 12th parliament would form a coalition to make the opposition bench in the Jatiya Sangsad.

He made the remark while talking to reporters at Parliament Bhaban before taking his oath as a member of Parliament on Wednesday.

Nixon Chowdhury, a relative of prime minister Sheikh Hasina and Awami League’s youth associate organisation Juba League presidium member, was elected an independent candidate for Faridpur-4 (Bhanga-Sadarpur-Charbhadrasan) constituency for the third term in Sunday’s general election, defeating the ruling Awami League official candidate and its presidium member Kazi Zafarullah.

‘The opposition party has not been formed yet. We will take oath today. Then we will decide through discussion. We will form a coalition. We will definitely do it,’ he said.

Nixon Chowdhury’s remarks came a day after law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister Anisul Huq’s Tuesday comment that the Jatiya Party would get priority as the opposition in the parliament if the independent candidates who won Bangladesh's 12th general election failed to join any party.

‘We will have to wait for some more time to be fully sure of the position of the independent MPs-elect,’ Anisul Huq told reporters at his Secretariat office.

In the January 7 general election, the ruling Awami League secured 222 seats, independent candidates won 62 seats, the Jatiya Party secured 11 seats, and other political parties won three seats.