Bangladesh Elections: Why student-led NCP aligned with Jamaat offshoot? The outfit is headed by…

Bangladesh Elections: In a major development that could potentially impact the outcome of the upcoming February 2026 elections in Bangladesh, the National Citizen Party (NCP)– a recently formed student-led political outfit– has announced an alliance with Amar Bangladesh– an offshoot of the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami.

Why NCP aligned with Jamaat offshoot?

Addressing a presser on Sunday, student leader and NCP convenor Nahid Islam said his outfit has joined hands with Amar Bangladesh (AB) party, and the Rashtra Songskar Andolon to form the ‘Gonotantrik Sangskar Jote’ alliance ahead of the upcoming Bangladesh elections.

Islam, who was among the prominent figures in the student-led protests which ousted Sheikh Hasina from power in August last year, said the alliance was an outcome of “more than two years of long-term efforts”, adding the upcoming polls would not merely be an ordinary election, rather “it will be for political transformation and economic liberation” and that the alliance is “committed to build a new Bangladesh.”

The recently launched student-led party NCP on Sunday joined an offshoot of Jamaat-e-Islami and another pressure group to form an alliance called ‘Gonotantrik Sangskar Jote’ ahead of the February election in Bangladesh.

Who formed National Citizen Party?

Earlier, in February this year, Students Against Discrimination (SAD), which spearheaded the student protests that led to the ousterSheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024, launched its political arm, the National Citizen Party (NCP), with active encouragement from Interim government Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus.

Nahid Islam, the de-facto leader of the NCP, was among three student leaders, who were part of the Muhammad Yunus-led advisory council, which was formed on August 8, 2024, three days after Hasina was ousted from power and fled to India(BHARAT). However, Islam quit his post to organise NCP’s formation.

Meanwhile, Amar Bangladesh, which broke away from its parent Jamaat-e-Islami on “ideological grounds”, was formed in 2020.

In another development, Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamic party, recently formed a coalition of eight Islamist parties in its its efforts to build a greater unity among the like-minded political outfits eyeing the February polls.

How right-wing could re-emerge in Bangladesh?

Earlier, Yunus-led Interim government had disbanded Hasina’s Awami League, leaving former prime minister Khaleda Zia-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) as the frontrunner to win the upcoming Bangladesh elections.

However, Zia, 80, is critically ill, and its believed that BNP is being steered by her self-exiled elder son and party’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman from London, where he is staying since 2008.

According to analysts, the disbanding of Awami League, and Khaleda Zia’s health condition, has opened up a large space in Bangladesh’s political landscape which could be filled by the Jamaat and other far right groups.