Signs of this new political configuration have been evident when Mohammed Yunus, Chief Adviser to the interim authorities, was seen on the eightieth session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York within the firm of Naib Ameer of the JEI, politician Syed Abdullah Mohammed Taher and Tasneem Zara, a younger chief from the student-backed and newly fashioned National Citizen Party (NCP). The delegation additionally included Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir of the BNP. But the presence of at the very least two Jamaat leaders and the aged Alamgir confirmed that the NCP and the Jamaat have lined a fantastic political distance inside the final 12 months.
On the bottom
There is appreciable frustration among the many supporters of the Awami League and the BNP because the management in each events shouldn’t be responding to the modifications which can be sweeping throughout Bangladesh’s politics. With the flight of Awami League leaders from the nation, Khaleda Zia’s BNP was the rapid beneficiary because it was anticipated to take cost in case an election was held by December 2024 or January 2025. As the interim authorities delayed the election, the BNP selected to attend and have become restive solely when it grew to become clear that the scholars would type their very own social gathering. In the method it misplaced helpful time and suffered reputational injury as Bangladesh was rocked by a collection of violent incidents which included the brutal killing of Lal Chand Sohag, a dealer in Dhaka on July 9, 2025. The BNP’s cadre needed to bear the blame.
The former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, who is predicated in New Delhi, has been in contact together with her social gathering cadre (the Awami League) on the bottom however has not held a single press interplay, digital or in particular person. She has not designated anybody on the bottom in Dhaka because the social gathering has been banned since May 2025 (In October 2024 Awami League’s scholar wing was banned). Neither has she or her colleagues expressed regret over the lack of lives within the protests of July-August 2024.
At the identical time, the BNP’s pitch for political energy is weak as its prime management remains to be in exile.
When senior BNP leaders organised a rally as a present of the BNP’s energy in May 2025 and accused Mr. Yunus of delaying elections — the social gathering had demanded elections by December 2025 — the BNP’s Acting Chairman, Tarique Rahman, addressed the gathering from his London dwelling (he has been based mostly right here for almost 20 years due to his disputes with Ms. Hasina and the navy). Sources within the BNP have indicated that he could return in November however there was no announcement of a particular date for his return.
That the BNP has nonetheless not been in a position to deliver again Mr. Rahman from London in what’s now a Hasina-free Bangladesh is an indication that its relations with the interim authorities are usually not as regular as they could seem. The BNP has not given a transparent rationalization for Mr. Rahman’s absence in Dhaka, with the elections simply months away. The Awami League’s incapability to delegate duty to a few of its over floor leaders resembling Saber Hossain Chowdhury has additionally not gone down effectively with the social gathering’s conventional supporters. The social gathering’s leaders who’re in exile have countered this with the road that delegating duties would make native leaders weak to extreme actions by the interim authorities. But the frequent man in Dhaka is of the opinion {that a} lack of delegation by Ms. Hasina solely reveals the political insecurity of the Sheikh Hasina household.
The new gamers
The NCP and the Jamaat are rising stress on Mr. Yunus to ban extra political events and introduce a proportional illustration (PR) system for the election. Their argument is that the PR system would guarantee a “degree taking part in area for all political events”. In truth, the PR system would improve stress on the BNP which stays the only heir of the older political system on the bottom. The BNP has additionally been humiliated in campuses after going through defeat within the scholar union elections at Jahangirnagar University and Dhaka University the place Jamaat-backed scholar panels gained. Jamaat-student coordination on campuses is supported by the truth that a number of the scholar activists have been skilled underneath the Jamaat’s scholar wing, Shibir.
There are a number of takeaways from the rising plot. First, the BNP’s long-held argument that an interim authorities can be apolitical has been proved flawed. During the rule of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League, the BNP was the strongest proponent of an interim authorities to conduct credible elections. Yet, the 2024 interim authorities, which the BNP had welcomed initially, has in flip thrown up new challengers for the BNP. If the BNP wins the election in 2026 or manages to emerge as the one largest social gathering, it could be as a result of the historical past of the two-party-led system nonetheless has vital attraction in Bangladesh.
The Army’s muted stand
Second, the pause in two-party politics underneath the interim authorities has been a actuality verify for the Bangladesh navy. Unlike his predecessors resembling General Ershad, the present Bangladesh Army chief, Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman, has shunned direct interference within the political area despite the fact that the military took over magisterial powers following the intense deterioration within the legislation and order state of affairs. On events, Gen. Zaman has stated that the navy might step in if the interim authorities makes compromises in areas that the military considers very important for Bangladesh’s safety.
The Bangladesh military’s actual check is predicted in winter 2025 when politics will warmth up in Dhaka because the International Crimes Tribunal is to deliberate on the way forward for Ms. Hasina and her colleagues. At the second, the military seems to be underneath stress. In December 2024, Gen. Zaman was profitable in scuttling the launch of the so-called July Proclamation that aimed to exchange the 1972 structure. But he couldn’t do that on August 5, 2025 when Mr. Yunus introduced it as a guiding doc for Bangladesh.
Third, inside the nationalism-centric social gathering system of Bangladesh, the Jamaat-e-Islami, with its pro-Pakistan historical past of 1971, is but to make a convincing nationalist pitch for the elections because it continues to be an organisation with a transnational ideological community throughout a number of nations together with the United States, the United Kingdom and Pakistan. If the scholar leaders of the NCP and the Jamaat management can proceed to maintain the BNP underneath stress through the interim administration (it has already banned the Awami League), a brand new political bloc that includes the Jamaat and in style scholar activists might effectively emerge as a figuring out drive within the election. The Jamaat has a historical past of aligning with the BNP as a junior companion throughout 2001-06 (throughout 1991-96, it gave exterior assist to the BNP), however with the scholars, it might emerge as a senior companion.
Finally, the revival of the Jamaat and its using the motion with in style scholar activists would supply it the car that it has been looking for lengthy. With this, it could be capable of reinvent its problematic picture and merge into the mainstream politics of Bangladesh.
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