DHAKA, Jan 3:
Thirteen central leaders of the student-led National Citizen Party (NCP) have resigned in the last eight days over its alliance with the Jamaat-e-Islami ahead of the elections in Bangladesh in February, a report said.
Apart from alliance with Jamaat, the leaders also raised several common allegations against NCP, including a lack of transparency in decision-making and political compromise, Bangladesh’s web portal The Business Standard reported on Saturday.
The fierce 2024 violent street campaign, dubbed the July Uprising, was carried out under the banner of the Students against Discrimination (SAD), and a large offshoot of the platform in February this year emerged as the NCP with interim government chief Muhammad Yunus’ backing.
Despite the objections, Jamaat chief Shafiqur Rahman officially announced the alliance with the NCP last week at a press conference at the National Press Club in Dhaka, the report said.
Even before the alliance was formally announced, 30 central NCP leaders submitted a memorandum to party convener Nahid Islam voicing objections to the proposed partnership.
The first signatory to the memorandum and the NCP’s joint member-secretary, Mushfiq Us Saleheen, had told reporters at the time that they had 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 first major resignation came on December 25, as alliance discussions were beginning. Mir Arshadul Hoque, the NCP’s joint member secretary and its nominated candidate for Chattogram-16, quit the party, the report said.
The second resignation came after two days, with Tasnim Jara resigning as joint member secretary. She announced on social media that, given the current reality, she had decided not to contest the election as a candidate of any specific party or alliance and instead run as an independent, it added.
A day later, NCP joint convener, Tajnuva Jabeen, announced her resignation on social media. She had been nominated as the party’s candidate for Dhaka-17 and was actively campaigning, it said.
Other leaders to resign were Azad Khan Bhashani, Arif Sohel, Khaled Saifullah, Mushfiq Us Salehin, Khan Md Morsalin, Farhad Alam Bhuiyan, Al Amin Ahmed Tutul, Asif Mostafa Jamal, Mir Habib Al Manjur and Wahiduzzaman, the report confirmed.
The memorandum submitted by party leaders highlighted 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”. (PTI)
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