Bangladesh youth party sees exit of senior leaders after it joins hands with Jamaat

Bangladesh’s newly formed National Citizen Party (NCP) on Sunday announced that it is formally joining hands with Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. However, the move is seen as highly controversial, with many within the party calling quits.

While a large section of leaders is backing the move, there is a significant faction which is opposing the alliance, recalling the controversial political history of Jamaat. The party, formed by a group of youth leaders who spearheaded the July uprising that toppled former PM Sheikh Hasina's government, is all set to contest in the upcoming general elections in Bangladesh.

The news of the controversial alliance was confirmed by Party Convener Nahid Islam on Sunday evening at a press briefing held at the party’s makeshift office in Banglamotor in the capital, The Dhaka Tribune reported. While speaking to reporters, Nahid said that NCP had initially planned to contest all 300 parliamentary seats independently, but the murder of Sharif Osman Hadi had altered the country’s “political landscape.”

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“After the martyrdom of Sharif Osman Hadi and the way he was openly shot dead, Bangladesh’s political context has changed significantly,” he said. “Through this killing, we understand that hegemonic and aggressive forces in the country are still active," he said. When asked if the alliance with Jamaat was ideological, Nahid clarified that it was not.

“This is not a comprehensive or ideological unity. It is an electoral compromise. We have reached a consensus on the minimum issues. Together, we can contest the election,” he said.

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Founding members threatened to resign

Around 30 founding members of NCP have threatened to resign if the party decides to ally with Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and the 8-party coalition. According to The Dhaka Tribune, the NCP leaders wrote a joint letter to express their discontent.

In the letter to the party convener, the members pointed to Jamaat-e-Islami’s political history, particularly its anti-independence role during the 1971 Liberation War and complicity in genocide. They emphasised that the party’s stance has fundamentally contradicted Bangladesh’s democratic spirit and the party’s values.

The founding members of NCP further condemned Jamaat and its student wing, Shibir, for engaging in “divisive politics since the July uprising, including espionage within other parties, character assassination of NCP’s women members, and the rising threat of religion-based social fascism," The Dhaka Tribune reported.

The signatories emphasised that as a democratic political force emerging from a mass uprising, the NCP has a responsibility “to lead toward a path where human rights, religious tolerance, equal dignity, minority protection, and democratic values remain intact.”

They also called out the party’s leadership’s apparent U-turn after announcing 125 candidates for independent contests, warning that any alliance “for just a handful of seats amounts to betrayal of the nation.”

Senior leaders call quits

While some leaders are threatening to resign, several senior leaders of the parties have already announced their departure. Mir Arshadul Haque, joint member secretary of the NCP central committee, resigned on Thursday. In his announcement, he made it clear that he did not believe the promises of the July mass uprising could be fulfilled from within the party.

“I felt that I would not be able to achieve this from within the NCP,” he told The Dhaka Tribune. Meanwhile, on Saturday night, Tasnim Jara resigned as the party’s first senior joint member secretary and announced she would contest the upcoming election as an independent candidate from Dhaka-9.

“Due to practical circumstances, I have decided not to participate in the election as a candidate of any specific party or alliance," she wrote in a Facebook post. Tajnuva Jabeen also stepped down from her position as joint convener on Sunday and announced that she would not contest the next general election. She went on to condemn the decision to form an alliance.

“This is being framed as a political strategy or an electoral alliance. I would say it was planned—carefully engineered and brought to this point," she wrote in her post.