The
July 2024 protests in Bangladesh not only overthrew the 15-year-long reign of the country’s former Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina, but they also led to the birth of a youth-driven political movement that ultimately led to the creation of the
National Citizen Party (NCP).
At the helm of this party was a youth protester who eventually became one of the advisors in the interim cabinet of Nobel Peace Prize winner
Muhammad Yunus. While Yunus was given the role to reconstruct a shattered Bangladesh, Islam left his cabinet and formed the party to win the next elections in the country.
Then came the
13th National Elections in Bangladesh, where multiple parties fought for 300 seats in the parliament. However, contrary to expectations, NCP did not manage to cash in on the July uprising wave and only secured 6 seats.
NCP was one of the three prominent parties contesting this election, the other two being the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and
Jamaat-e-Islami. While BNP managed to gain a massive majority, Jamaat also gave its best performance in the national election in Bangladesh’s history. So why did NCP, a promising party that emerged out of the July protest, fade away?
The rise of a promising party
27-year-old
Nahid Islam was the central key coordinator of the Students Against Discrimination, which led the July Revolution against the Hasina government. When Yunus came to power, he was given an advisory role in Bangladesh’s Interim government. During his brief tenure in the interim government, he served as the Adviser of Information and broadcasting, posts, telecommunications and IT, etc.
However, he resigned from the council of advisers in February 2025 and became the founding convener of the National Citizen Party on 28 February 2025. Nahid Islam’s role in the Bangladesh protests was so prominent that he was also named on the Time 100 Next list in 2024, reflecting that the party had a promising future.
Many expected the party to absorb the nature of the July uprising, which was rooted in inclusive, democratic ideals, becoming the voice of the ordinary citizens and fighting against dynasty politics. However, what came next would falter all the expectations.
The problematic alliance that broke the party
In December last year, NCP announced that it was formally joining hands with JeI. However, the move was seen as highly controversial, with many within the party calling quits. Soon after the announcement, as many as 30 party leaders, who brought their share of followers, resigned from the party.
Before resigning, NCP leaders wrote a joint letter to express their discontent. In the letter to the party convener, the members pointed to Jamaat-e-Islami’s political history, particularly its anti-independence role during the 1971 Liberation War and complicity in genocide. They emphasised that the party’s stance has fundamentally contradicted Bangladesh’s democratic spirit and the party’s values.
The founding members of NCP further condemned Jamaat and its student wing, Shibir, for engaging in “divisive politics since the July uprising, including espionage within other parties, character assassination of NCP’s women members, and the rising threat of religion-based social fascism.”
They also called out the party’s leadership’s apparent U-turn after announcing 125 candidates for independent contests, warning that any alliance “for just a handful of seats amounts to betrayal of the nation.” Several women leaders also resigned, alleging that they had been sidelined.
The fading mass support
The student movement in Bangladesh was widely perceived as rooted in inclusive and democratic ideals, but partnering with the hardline Jamaat appears to have alienated segments of the NCP’s liberal voter base. Many of these voters eventually shifted towards the BNP.
Several supporters said that the CP effectively took itself out of the race by choosing in December to run alongside another long-established movement – the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami.
Initially, the party planned to contest in all seats but ended up competing only in 30 in the coalition, which it said it joined because it needed the clout of a major player after a prominent member of the uprising was killed in Dhaka. The party was also struggling with resources to contest in all the seats; hence, an alliance was needed.
Restricted to fringes
One of the six NCP winners was Abdullah Al Amin, 32, a lawyer and joint secretary of the party. He told Reuters that the alliance with Jamaat had helped the NCP win the seats it did. However, experts noted that the alliance pushed away the young voters, a strong voting base in Bangladesh.
After the result, NCP spokesperson Asif Mahmud said the party would rebuild itself in opposition and focus on local government elections due in a year. Meanwhile, NCP chief Nahid Islam told Reuters in December his organisation had not had enough time to build itself up. It was also hampered by scarce funds and an unclear stance on key issues such as rights for women and minorities, Reuters reported, citing party leaders.
Overall, NCP emerged as a prominent party but failed to take advantage of its mass support and faltered right at the finishing line.
With inputs from agencies.
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