Student-led NCP sees internal rift ahead of Bangladesh elections

An internal rift overnight gripped the student-led National Citizen Party (NCP) over its proposed alliance with the Jamaat-e-Islami ahead of the Bangladesh election in February, with 30 of its leaders issuing a joint letter opposing the plan and two ranking members announcing their resignation.

The NCP, a large offshoot of the Students Against Discrimination (SAD) that spearheaded last year’s violent movement, dubbed the July Uprising, toppling then prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League Government, emerged as a political party with interim Government chief Muhammad Yunus’ blessings in February.

The first signatory to the memorandum and the NCP’s joint member-secretary, Mushfiq Us Saleheen, told reporters on Saturday night that they have sent the memo titled “Principled objections to a potential alliance in light of the accountability of the July Uprising and party values” to party convenor Nahid Islam. The memorandum has expressed concerns over the NCP’s alliance with the Jamaat, stating that it conflicts with the party’s declared ideology and stance regarding the July Uprising and democratic ethics.

It has simultaneously pointed out the Jamaat’s controversial political history, particularly its role against Bangladesh’s independence and alleged collaboration in genocide and crimes during the 1971 Liberation War, describing these as fundamentally incompatible with Bangladesh’s democratic spirit and the NCP’s core values. The memo alleged that the Jamaat’s student wing, Chhatra Shibir, in the recent past, infiltrated and sabotaged other parties in its efforts to blame the NCP for various incidents and spread misinformation and propaganda. It warned that the planned alliance with the Jamaat would undermine the NCP’s political credibility and public trust, creating confusion and disappointment among “many of our activists and supporters, especially among the younger generation and ordinary citizens who support new politics”.

The memorandum was made public after the NCP’s senior joint member-secretary, Tasnim Jara, resigned from her position on Saturday evening and announced that she would contest the upcoming parliamentary election as an independent candidate from a constituency in Dhaka, the capital. In a Facebook post, Jara, a doctor, said, “Due to the current political realities, I have decided not to contest the election as a candidate of any specific party or alliance.”

She, however, did not point out if her resignation was related to the NCP’s planned electoral alliance with the Jamaat, while newspaper reports said her husband and the party’s joint convenor, Khaled Saifullah, too has quit the organisation.

Hours after Jara’s post, NCP joint convener Tajnuva Jabeen, also a doctor, announced her resignation in a Facebook post, saying the alliance formation was “a political strategy... I would say it was planned”. “It was carefully engineered and brought to this point,” she wrote, adding that despite being a founding member, she was quitting NCP with mental agony as she doesn’t have any “honourable option”.

The Ittefaq newspaper in a report on Saturday said most female NCP leaders, like senior joint convenor Samata Sharmin, senior member-secretary Nahid Sarwar Niva, joint convenor Taznuva Jabin and joint member-secretary Nusrat Tabassum were opposed to an alliance with the Jamaat or any religion-based parties and that they have expressed their reservations to the party.

Most signatories to the memo, however, were the NCP’s male members. The NCP is yet to make any formal announcement about its proposed alliance but the “Daily Star” newspaper has said the party is likely to finalise a seat-sharing deal with the Jamaat within the next one or two days.  But Jamaat’s secretary, General Mia Golam Parwar, has told the newspaper that their discussions with the NCP are underway on a one-on-one basis and “there is a possibility of sharing seats, and the issue will become clear very soon”. Bengali daily Prothom Alo had reported that the possibility of a seat-sharing deal between the NCP and former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was discussed, “but no understanding was reached”.

“Since then, NCP talks with Jamaat have progressed positively,” the report read. The BNP has emerged as the forerunner in the changed political landscape, with its once crucial ally and partner in its 2001-2006 tenure in power — Jamaat — appearing as its main rival in the apparent absence of the Awami League, disbanded by the interim Government. NCP over its proposed alliance with the Jamaat-e-Islami ahead of  election in February.