"I got surprised and bewildered to see the statement of Obaidul Quader in different newspapers about what he said was that I had taken money from the Awami League to join the grand alliance. It's false, fabricated and fictitious," Ershad said in a statement yesterday.

In the statement, the former president denied his involvement in such "election business".

Some newspapers, quoting Quader's statement to the Task Force for Interrogation (TFI), reported that the Awami League had offered more money than BNP did to court him into the mega-coalition formed ahead of the general election scheduled for January, which was later cancelled following the political crisis.

Protesting strongly "a planned falsehood", the JP chairman said: "If anybody can prove that I have taken a single penny from anyone to join the grand alliance, I will quit politics."

The former military ruler stated that as a soldier, he could say that he is a real fighter who can adopt the strategy to win a battle.

“Due to strategic reason, once I decided in principle to join the four-party alliance. But, later, I formed the grand alliance to oust the corrupt four-party alliance in the interest of the country as well as the people."

Ershad said he and the grand alliance had an agreement only on some identical programmes and seat allocation.

"There was no other matter incorporated in the agreement. Me and my party never got involved in any kind of politics of monetary transaction," Ershad asserted.

He alleged that such a false report has been published in the interest of certain quarters out of jealousy about him or his party.