State minister for planning Zonayed Saki on Saturday stepped down as the chief coordinator of his party, the Ganosamhati Andolan.

The party’s peasant wing chief, Dewan Abdur Rashid Nilu, was made the acting chief coordinator.

The announcement came at a press conference held at the party’s central office at Hatirpool in Dhaka.

Addressing the press conference, party executive coordinator Abul Hassan Rubel said that the decision was taken in line with the party’s ideological position that a person should not simultaneously serve as both the party chief and a state minister.

‘We have followed the ideals of Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani that state power and organisation should remain separate,’ Rubel said.

Saki, also a lawmaker of the party, said that he would continue to perform his duties as a member of the party’s central committee.

He was appointed state minister in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government on February 17, when the BNP-led government was formed.

Dewan Abdur Rashid Nilu had been serving as president of Bangladesh Krishok Khetmojur Samhati, the peasant wing of the Ganosamhati Andolan.

The press conference was also attended, among others, by party central leaders Taslima Akhter, Monir Uddin Pappu, Hasan Maruf Rumi, Bachchu Bhuiyan and Dipak Kumar Roy.