Amid intense debates about the Jatiya Party’s fate in parliament, its Chairman GM Quader has been named the Leader of the Official Opposition.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury made the announcement in a notice on Sunday in the wake of intense infighting in the party.

She also named former minister Anisul Islam Mahmud the deputy leader of the official opposition. 

Bangladesh’s politics has been rife with speculations over whether the Jatiya Party or independent MPs would become the opposition in parliament since the independents, mostly rebels from the Awami League, won nearly six times as many seats as the Jatiya Party’s 11 constituencies. 

With the BNP boycotting the election and out of the scene, the Jatiya Party still has the second highest number of seats in parliament as a single party.

But the Jatiya Party has been plagued by infighting between Quader and Chief Patron Raushon Ershad, who earlier on Sunday announced herself party head. 

Raushon had been the Leader of the Opposition in the last parliament, but she and her followers stayed away from the recent election after being deprived of nomination by Quader. 

A notice from the Parliament Secretariat, however, read the speaker has approved Rangpur-3 MP Quader as the Leader of the Opposition following the rules while Anisul from Chattogram-5 constituency has been declared the deputy leader of the opposition in parliament.