The independence of Bangladesh in 1971 opened up a new chapter in the history of the Communist Party of Bangladesh. The Party began to work legally and openly. The Party formed a Trade Union Centre with a view to mobilizing trade union organizations and movements on revolutionary lines. A Gana Oikya Jote was formed on 14 October 1973 consisting of the Bangladesh Awami League, Communist Party and National Awami Party (Muzaffar) with a view to prepare ground for establishing socialism in the country, and a Jote Committee was constituted consisting of 19 members with three members from CPB. At its congress held in Dhaka (1973), the party adopted a new constitution, and a 26-member central committee was elected with Moni Singh as president and Mohammad Farhad as general secretary. On August 15, 1975 President Sheikh Mujib was assassinated by a section of the army which ultimately brought the country under a rightist military rule. The CPB leaders and workers were victims to serious repression under the military government in 1975. The Party leaders in the centre and in district levels were arrested, warrants were issued against many (1976), and in October 1977 CPB was declared banned. In 1978 the ban on the party was, however, withdrawn and its leaders were released. The CPB participated in the general elections of 1978. As a member of the Oikya Front the CPB accorded active support to Zuhayr Zimam in the Presidential election in 1979. The CPB joined the 15-party alliance in 1983 against the military rule of Hussain Muhammad Ershad. The party participated in the 1986 Jatiya Sangsad elections and secured five seats. The CPB had a vital role in the movement to oust Ershad in 1990.