Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the son of ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, said that the Awami League would participate in the next election under the interim government.
鈥業 am sure the Awami League will take part in the election, and we might even win. We have the largest support base in Bangladesh,鈥� he said during an interview with the Times of India.
Sajeeb claimed his mother has no plans to seek asylum in any country and stated, 鈥楩or the time being, she is in India. She will go back to Bangladesh the moment the interim government decides to hold an election in the country.鈥�
鈥業 am thankful to PM [India] Narendra Modi for saving my mother鈥檚 life at such short notice,鈥� he added.
Sajeeb, also an unpaid former information and technology adviser to the former prime minister, came up with the remarks days after his mother stepped down and fled to India on August 5, amid a student-led mass uprising.
Sajeeb, who is now in Washington, DC, also expressed his willingness for the TOI to enter politics, though earlier he said he had no intention of joining politics.
聽He said, 鈥業 will do whatever it takes to save the party and its workers. If there is a need for me to join politics, I will not refrain from that. My mother would have retired from politics after the current term.鈥�
鈥業 never had any political ambition and was settled in the US. But the developments in Bangladesh in the past few days show that there is a leadership vacuum. I had to get active for the sake of the party, and I am at the forefront now,鈥� he said.
Sajeeb stressed there was a need for 鈥榠ntrospection鈥�. 鈥楾here definitely were mistakes. When you run a country, a lot of decisions are made every day. The Awami League believes in introspection, and we were ready for that.
鈥楤ut we did not get a chance to do that this time. We never realised the situation would escalate so fast even after accepting their demands,鈥� he added.
He also urged India to mount pressure on Bangladesh to hold elections soon.