DHAKA, Dec 29 — Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party announced yesterday a seat-sharing agreement with a political grouping formed by students who spearheaded last year’s uprising, some of whose members oppose the alliance.
Jamaat-e-Islami appears determined to gain a foothold in government through next year’s general election, the first polls since the student-led revolt toppled prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024.
Islamist movements that were crushed under Hasina’s 15-year autocratic rule have regrouped since her fall, and the Jamaat regards the February 12 vote as its biggest opportunity in decades.
Yesterday, the Jamaat said it had reached an agreement with the student-led National Citizen Party following marathon talks, during which some NCP members warned against the move.
Jamaat leader Shafiqur Rahman announced a separate agreement with the small Liberal Democratic Party.
“We were eight parties in the alliance. Now two new political parties have joined us,” he said at a press conference.
The Jamaat-led alliance is dominated by fringe Islamist political parties, most of which held only a handful of seats in previous parliaments.
The majority Muslim nation of 170 million has been in turmoil since the 2024 uprising, and the resurgence of Islamist forces has sparked concern among religious minorities including Sufi Muslims and Hindus, who account for less than 10 percent of the population.
Hardline Islamist groups have called for restrictions on cultural activities they consider anti-Islamic, including music and theatre festivals, women’s football matches, and kite-flying celebrations.
Ahead of the tie-up with the Jamaat, at least 30 NCP members wrote to party chief Nahid Islam, opposing the plan to join hands.
In a letter Saturday, they said NCP’s ideology and its commitment to democratic values contradicted those of the Jamaat.
Tasnim Jara, who was looking to run on the NCP ticket, quit on Saturday, followed yesterday by another aspiring candidate, Tasnuva Jabin.
Senior party figure Samantha Sharmin warned in a social media post yesterday that the party would have to pay a “high price” for its alliance with Islamists.
The NCP was formed in March, promising centrist politics that would be “democratic, egalitarian, and people-oriented”.
But Islam defended the alliance, saying it was “not an ideological agreement, but an electoral alliance”.
“To ensure a free, fair, and competitive election, and to prevent the return of hegemonic forces, the NCP felt the need for broader unity,” he said at a media briefing.
He also promised to pursue an agenda focused on “reforms, justice, and opposition to hegemony and corruption”.
With Hasina’s Awami League barred from the election, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is widely tipped to win the polls.
The BNP has been energised by the return of its acting chairman Tarique Rahman to Bangladesh on Thursday after 17 years in exile in Britain. — AFP
