Bangladesh students launch new party to shake up politics
Anupam Deb Kanunjna
02/28/2025February 28, 2025
A new youth-led party wants to reshape the political landscape in a country that has been grappling with unrest since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina last August.
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The new party includes key organizers from the powerful Students Against Discrimination (SAD) group that spearheaded the uprising against then PM Sheikh Hasina in August.
Students who played a major role in ousting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government last year have announced the formation of a new political faction which aims to shake up the political landscape
in the South Asian country.
The National Citizen Party (NCP) will be headed by Nahid Islam, one of the best-known protest leaders.
Until recently, he served as an adviser to the interim government — led by the
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus — that took charge of Bangladesh after Hasina's exit.
Addressing a public rally in the capital Dhaka on Friday, Islam said, "We believe the July 2024 uprising initiated the fight towards a second republic. By writing a new democratic constitution, we must eliminate any possibility of future constitutional autocracy."
Bangladesh has been grappling with political infighting since Hasina fled following weeks of
mass, anti-government protests during which over 1,000 people were killed. Hasina currently remains in self-imposed exile in neighboring India.
Breaking the political duopoly
Since gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971, two parties —
Hasina's Awami League (AL) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of her rival Khaleda Zia — have dominated Bangladeshi politics, while smaller leftist and Islamic parties have struggled to gain significant voter support.
The AL and the BNP have governed the country for most of the past three decades.
And they have been accused of widespread corruption and authoritarianism as well as failing to act on issues such as systemic inequality, discrimination and social injustice.
Many Bangladeshis hope the new, youth-led party will now reshape the political landscape.
Masud Kamal, a Dhaka-based political analyst, said Bangladeshis have so far had limited options on the ballot.
"The emergence of a third or fourth force could provide much-needed relief for the electorate," he told DW. However, he is uncertain whether the NCP will achieve electoral success.
Fractious politics
Politics in Bangladesh are notoriously fractious. NCP representative Akhtar Hossain has said his party emphasizes "participatory politics" and rejects both Islamophobia and religious extremism in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
"In Bangladesh, we've seen Islamophobia on one side and extremism on the other," he said. "We don't want this kind of politics in our party. We're advocating for participatory politics, where the civic dignity of people is the primary concern."
Political analyst Kamal said the NCP still lacks a clear ideology, which he described as a "weakness."
"I don't understand the new party's policy or its ideology," he told DW, adding: "They talk about participatory politics, but almost all the party leaders are students from Dhaka University. Yet, the mass uprising included workers, farmers, rickshaw pullers, and even housewives."
He also cast doubt on the new party's popularity. "Calculating a voter base based on social media popularity is a foolish approach," Kamal noted.
"A lot of people in remote areas of Bangladesh are quite angry about the activities of the newcomers. I think if the NCP contests the elections without forming an alliance, it will stand in third or fourth place in terms of seats," he stressed.
A new youth-led party wants to reshape the political landscape in a country that has been grappling with unrest since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina last August.
amp.dw.com
Finally we are here. We intend to commence a new stream of politics in BD. Realistically speaking we won't win the next election. Coming at 3/4 place still matters. Everthing so far was fake, no real mandate no real perlament. It was a horrible dictatorship. But now being able to be a part of representative and elected perlament is a big deal for a party of young people with young leadership.
Frankly it isn't even about winning the next election. The goal is to bring long term change in BD's policitical landscape that reflect the aspirations of youth and new generation of people. So that older major policitical parties is forced to bring changes to their conducts and policies in accordance of our vision for the country in order to keep their young voter base. Otherwise, they won't be able to compete with us and will capitulate in next 10 years.
@Isa Khan @TR_123456 @Nilgiri @Rooxbar @Sanchez et al.
