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Dhaka, Bangladesh – Bangladeshi students, who led last year's mass protests to deposit Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, launched a political party before the parliamentary elections expected to take place within next year.
Turning to a rally of Avenue Manic Mia, adjacent to the Parliament building in the capital on Friday, the leaders of the Noval National Citizens (NCP) insisted that they would continue the policy of national unity for division, transparency and good corruption and independent foreign policy.
Lima Akter, the sister of Ismail Hossein Rabbi, who was among the security forces killed during the July uprising against Hasina-hen that 27-year-old Nahid Islam would be the congress of the new party.
The Islam-26-year-old boy on the plaque of the July Uprising, which removed Hasina, and later the acting leader of the Ministry of Information and Bangladesh's broadcasting, will lead the new party. Islam resigned on Tuesday by the Provisional Government, headed by Nobel Laureate of Mira Mohammed Yunus, to take over the leadership of the new party, which would initially have a central committee of about 150 members.
Yunus, who headed the Provisional Government after Hasina released in August, said the general elections would be held by December or in early 2026.
Shafiqul Islam, a third year student at GAZI Munibur Rahman College nurses at Patuahali's coastal district, who was at the start -up event on Friday, said: “We had no freedom of expression under the previous regime. We do not want violence in educational institutions in the name of politics. Corruption remains a major obstacle to our progress and we want a constant end of it. This new party is our hope. “
On Wednesday, former students against discrimination (SAD), the Student Movement, which overthrew the Awami Hasina League, launches a new student organization Ganatantrik Chhatra Sangsad, or Democratic Student Council (DSC), at a press conference.
According to DSC leaders, SAD was designed to organize the July movement with the participation of students related to different students from political parties who have since returned to their respective organizations. In addition, many of its leaders have already joined the new political party.
“We have formed this new organization to maintain the spirit of the July movement among students,” said DSC Convener Abu Baker Mazumdar when the group is launched.
He stressed that the organization would remain independent and would not contact any political party, including NCP.
However, analysts view it as the union organization of the new party, sharing the same spirit as the movement in July.
A new chapter in Bangladesh's policy
Political analysts have stated that the NCP youth is intended to raise Bangladesh political landscapeDominated for decades by two family dynasties, led by women. The Hasina family is descended from the country's founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was also the founder of the Awami League party. Then there is a family of former Prime Minister Haleda Zia. Zia's late husband, former military ruler Ziaur Rahman, founded the main opposition nationalist party in Bangladesh (BNP).
Rahman's 76-year-old daughter sought exile in neighboring India when the student movement forced her from power. Its 15-year-old government was marked by major economic profits for the country-and widespread allegations of corruption, violations of rights and authoritarianism.
BNP, who hopes to dominate the next parliamentary elections, is guided by a sick Zia, 79 -year -old, and her son Tarik Rahman. Zia was flew in London last month, where her son lives in exile, for the treatment of liver and cardiac complications.
In addition to the two major political groups, Islamist organizations such as Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islam (BJI) and left-wing groups, such as the Bangladesh Communist Party, so far maintain their role as influential pressure groups in Bangladesh's policy.
The leaders of the newly formed party claim that Bangladesh's policy has long been determined by what they consider “dividing lines” – secularism against Islamic law or people to Pakistan or their own homeland during the 1971 liberation movement.
These units, they claim, pushed the problems of livelihood, health and education to the borders. The Jamaat, who often allies with BNP politically, opposed Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan.
“In the Banglades on tomorrow, we do not want these divisions to continue. We want to provide equal rights to all, whether a university professor or a person from the smaller strata of society, whether he is a daily worker or clothing worker, without any discrimination, “said Ahtar Hosen, who was declared one of the secretaries of the new Ahtar party.
The founders of the party said they had collected opinions from nearly 200,000 people, both online and offline, by the type of policy they have to pursue and which issues need urgent attention. They said the answers reveal a strong desire to eradicate corruption, reform education and provide universal access to health care.
Speaking from the scene on Friday, Islam said: “There will be no place for Prondian or pro-Pakistanic policy in Bangladesh. We will restore the country with a Bangladesh in the center, holding the interests of its people in the first place. “
Achter, talking to Al Jazeera, said the new party would be avoided by ideological divisions.
“Our policy will be for good governance, providing equality and providing civic benefits for everyone,” he said.
Achter said the new party was inspired by such parties abroad: the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in India, a politician from Pakistan of Imran Khan Techrek-E-Inf (PTI) in Pakistan and the Party for Justice and Development of AK (AK). Achter said the conditions that encourage the creation of these political movements are also present in Bangladesh.
AAP was born of a popular anti -corruption movement in 2012 and ruled over the national capital of India in Delhi for more than a decade until it was defeated by the Hindu majority Bharatiy Janna (BJP) this month. AAP still rules the northern Indian state of Pengjab.
Khan's PTI violated the strangeness of the two major family parties in Pakistan-Pakistani Muslim League (Nawaz) and the Pakistani People's Party to win the 2018 election. He lost power in 2022 after Khan, then Prime Minister, was removed in the vote of incredible vote. He is now in prison because of many cases that he insists that they are politically motivated. Despite these failures, the party remains the most popular political force in Pakistan, as proved in last year's national elections, in which PTI candidates were forced to compete as independent after the party lost its symbol-well-to-do pieces in parliament.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party has been running for nearly 25 years, although he now sees signs of significant challenges facing his power.
Achter said the search for inspiration from these movements “does not mean that we will repeat these parties.”
“Bangladesh has its own unique context and we strive to give a different example,” he said.
Up the way forward
But analysts said the new party would face a series of challenges and overcoming the internal gaps, presenting the Unified Front and presenting himself as different from existing political entities, would be his main direct struggles.
Shortly after joining the temporary government, student leaders announced the formation of a National Citizen Committee (NCC), a platform aimed at uniting people of diverse political origin while the country recovers after Hasina.
The idea was to offer a new political compact for Bangladesh people. However, as negotiations on sailing a new political party began last month, disputes have emerged within the NCC, as most factions agree on Islam as their leader, but are confronted with other key positions.
On Wednesday, Ali Ahsan Zone and Raf Salman Rifat – two former Bangladesh leaders Islamic Chracibir, Jamaat's student wing, who were also part of the sad ones – announced on Facebook that they would not join the new party.
They and other student leaders from Jamaat's student body say they are kept from key positions in the new party because of their political affiliation. Zonaed said in his publication that he wanted the new party well. However, ARIFUL ISLAM, a joint secretary of the new party, told Al Jazeera that the split proposals were overworked and later student leaders of Jamaat could be included in leadership positions.
These tensions, which have played outdoors, reflect the challenges that the new party will face, said political analyst Zhad Ur Rahman, who believes that the new power led by students has already taken some wrong steps.
He pointed out how some student leaders, unlike Islam, remain in the interim government. It is unclear whether or when they can join the new party. “Joining the temporary government, they share his successes and failures,” Rahman told Al Jazeera.
Rahman said the party has included figures from the whole ideological spectrum, from left -handed to conservatives leading to fears of “internal ideological friction”. He added that this could prevent the party from becoming a “cohesive power”.
Rezaul Karim Ronnie, analyst and editor of Joban magazine, however, claims that leadership fights within a political party are natural and Islam, which has remained the central figure of the movement, can help relieve internal divisions.
However, Ronnie warned that the party was not enough. “They need to realize that widely -based support during the uprising (against Hasina) will not be automatically transformed into political support,” he said, emphasizing the need for a “vision that connects people who resonate beyond rhetoric.”
And how did the existing Bangladesh political parties respond to the arrival of a new rival?
In September, when student leaders first announced their plans to set up their own party, BNP Deputy Lider Mirul Fahruul Islam Alamgir called into question the neutrality of the temporary government and warned that people would reject “the country's party-sponsored party”.
At that time, Jamaat sounded these moods. Jamaat's leader Shafyur Rahman said: “Those who are currently part of the temporary government, since the non -partisan figures will no longer remain neutral if they enter politics or form a party.”
Both BNP and Jamaat softened their positions as Islam resigned from the government this week. “We welcome the new party. Because the individual who will lead the new party has resigned from the government, we have no objection at the moment, “Alamgir told Al Jazeera.
Jamaat Secretary General Mia Golam Parvar also welcomed the formation of the new party, but with a note of caution.
“We have a bitter history of rulers forming state -sponsored political parties and imposing authoritarianism on people. But we want to believe that this new political party will introduce a democratic, safe and inclusive approach to Bangladesh's policy by taking advantage of people, “he said.
So far, the new party has a narrow window of opportunities, analysts said.
“The excitement in July provoked a desire among Bangladeshi people for a new policy. If the new party can respond to this request, it has the potential to become a dominant political force in Bangladesh, “Ronnie said. “Otherwise it is not.”
