A total of 15 graft cases pending against the former president has provided the government with a powerful leverage to turn him into a puppet, even to dictate the recent expulsion of his wife Bidisha from his party, sources said.

In a telephone call in the early hours today, Bidisha said a team of police raided her Baridhara house at around 12:50am, told her she was under arrest. She said the police were hauling her away in a van, where to, she did not know. She had just returned home last night from Sikdar Medical College in Gulshan, where she had been under treatment since her return from a 40-day visit to India.

A witness confirmed the arrest, but both the deputy commissioner of Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police and the officer-in-charge of Gulshan Police Station denied the incident.

In a meeting last Tuesday, an influential leader of the ruling BNP threatened to revive the corruption cases against Ershad and to throw him back into jail, if he does not evict Bidisha and toe the line, sources said.

"Whenever Ershad wants to do any thing against the government, it threatens to revive the cases," said a JP leader. "He is so afraid of going to jail again that he agreed to oust even his wife from the party," he added.

While the government keeps up squeezing the second largest opposition in parliament to join its coalition, the main opposition Awami League also is trying hard to get it in its camp, against the BNP and Jamaat, in the next general election.

Talking to the press in the recent past, Ershad admitted that the cases have virtually made him a cripple. He cannot act independently, he said, as the government often warned of putting him behind the bars, if he goes against it.

Sources said two senior JP leaders arranged the meeting between Ershad and the influential BNP leader, who is not in the cabinet, in the city on Tuesday, where the latter raised questions about some recent activities of Bidisha, his second wife.

Bidisha 'works for Awami League', alleged the BNP leader and asked the JP chair to throw her out of the party. Ershad was also asked to tell her to leave the country immediately or to face arrest on charge of money laundering. The BNP top-man claimed they have enough proofs of her smuggling money abroad.

The BNP leader also directed Ershad to axe all 'anti-government leaders' from his party, sources said.

They said Bidisha's recent visit to India for what she claimed was medical treatment angered a section of the government. It believes she made high-level meetings with the Indian government during her stay there and worked as an agent of the AL.

Following her return from India, the government put her under watch. Both plainclothesmen and uniformed police were deployed at the hospital, where she had been undergoing treatment.

"BNP high-ups told us that Bidisha is working in the Jatiya Party to form an electoral alliance with Awami League against the BNP-Jamaat-led ruling coalition," a JP leader said.

In Tuesday's meeting, the BNP leader also alleged that Bidisha was conspiring to join Awami League with at least 12 senior JP leaders.

Talking to newsmen from her hospital bed earlier yesterday, Bidisha confirmed that she had been asked to leave the country or face arrest.

The corruption cases were filed against Ershad after his removal from power through a mass upsurge in 1990.

Talking to The Daily Star last night on Bidisha's expulsion, Ershad said, "I have to take the decision for different reasons." He expressed the hope to be able to resolve all problems in the party within a short time.

On the government pressure on his party to join the ruling coalition, he said, "We so far have not taken any decision in this regard."

A senior BNP leader on condition of anonymity admitted to the pressure on Ershad to get the JP in the ruling alliance. "Though Ershad has not taken any hard stance against the government in the last three and a half years, we don't believe him. We apprehend he may join hands with Awami League, when the caretaker government takes over," he explained.

"We want to keep him away from Awami League, as such an alliance might turn into a major stumbling block for us in the next polls," the BNP leader said.