Strain has grown between Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizen Party (NCP), and one of the main reasons is the NCP’s frustration that hopes of an understanding for the local elections came to nothing, along with its unhappiness over the role Jamaat is playing as the opposition. The absence of top NCP leaders from the alliance’s latest long march has also set off fresh talk about relations between the two parties. Both sides, however, have rejected any suggestion that the alliance could break up.
Sources involved said that when the 11-party alliance’s liaison committee began discussing the local government elections, the NCP and some other parties proposed contesting them as an alliance or on the basis of mutual understanding. Jamaat and some other parties argued for each party running on its own. In the end, a meeting of the alliance’s top leaders decided that the parties would contest separately.
Jamaat’s argument is that although it fought national elections in alliance with the BNP in the past, the parties contested local elections separately, and the same principle is being followed this time. The decision caused discontent in the NCP. Giving up on an understanding, the party announced mayoral candidates for five city corporations, including Dhaka, and began preparing for the polls. It later changed its candidates in Dhaka’s two city corporations. Jamaat leaders say that, through the 11-party alliance that includes the NCP, Jamaat is playing the part of a constructive opposition both in parliament and on the streets.
A section of NCP leaders believes that NCP candidates did well in the last national election because they had Jamaat’s organisational help and support, and that the party could do well in the coming local elections with similar help. That is why the NCP wants to contest them under an understanding with Jamaat. But because Jamaat is unwilling, there will be no alliance deal for the local elections.
Jamaat leaders, for their part, say that giving up seats to partners in the national election caused organisational discontent at the grassroots, as many committed candidates had to stand aside. A deal in the local elections as well could make matters more complicated. So the party’s high command decided to contest on its own to strengthen its grassroots organisation.
There are also allegations that various quarters in government are trying to split the 11-party alliance or widen the gap between its two main parties. Conflicting positions and suspicions have also emerged over the two parties’ current relationship with the government and over their role as the opposition. The question of a rift became public when the NCP was absent from the opening rally of the alliance’s latest long march and its top leaders did not join the convoy or the roadside meetings and rallies that followed. Both sides say, however, that whether the absence had some particular reason, whether they contest separately, or whether the government is plotting anything, none of it will hurt the 11-party alliance.
Allies see no split
In the national election of 12 February, through the 11-party alliance, Jamaat won 68 seats, the NCP six, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis two and Khelafat Majlis one. With 77 seats after the election, the Jamaat-led alliance emerged as the opposition in parliament. It later gained 13 reserved seats for women: nine for Jamaat, two for the NCP and one each for Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis and Jagpa. Jamaat ameer Dr Shafiqur Rahman is now leader of the opposition, and NCP convener Nahid Islam is the opposition chief whip.
Besides its role as the opposition in parliament, the 11-party alliance has held a range of programmes in politics, which have shown unity and good relations between Jamaat and the NCP as well as the other partners. But the situation created by the local government elections has left it uncertain which way relations between the two parties will go.
What the alliance and Jamaat say
Hamidur Rahman Azad, coordinator of the 11-party alliance and assistant secretary general of Jamaat, told Amar Desh that in the past, when Jamaat fought national elections in alliance with the BNP and was a partner in government or in street movements, all parties still contested local elections separately. That has been the custom in the history of alliance politics in the country, and accordingly the parties have decided to contest the local elections separately this time too. He said there is nothing to stop an understanding where a party has no candidate in an area or where one is reached locally, and that this will not affect the 11-party alliance or relations between Jamaat and the NCP. He said he hoped the alliance would stay intact for the sake of implementing the July Charter.
Asked about the absence of NCP leaders from the long march’s opening rally, he said they had not told Jamaat anything about it. He added that NCP leaders did attend the rallies that followed.
Rashed Pradhan, vice president of the Jatiya Ganatantrik Party (Jagpa), told Amar Desh that after discussions in the liaison committee, the top leaders decided to contest the local elections separately, and that this does not mean the alliance is splitting. After the 11 parties met on 27 October, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis ameer Maulana Mamunul Haque announced the same decision.
The NCP’s two reasons
The NCP also has questions about Jamaat’s role as the opposition. A section of the party alleges that Jamaat, while in opposition, is pursuing a conciliatory strategy towards the ruling BNP. In Jamaat’s statements, they say, its opposition to the government and ruling party on issues that hurt the public has been lukewarm, and instead of taking a firm, strong stand, Jamaat is showing softness. Because the NCP wants to be an effective opposition, a difference has opened up in the two parties’ political strategies.
This has surfaced recently in remarks by several of the party’s leaders. At an 11-party alliance long march rally in Jashore on Saturday, NCP senior joint convener and MP Hasnat Abdullah hinted at the discontent in front of Jamaat leaders. He criticised the defeated Jamaat candidate in the Thakurgaon-1 by-election for exchanging courtesies with the BNP candidate even after alleging that the vote was rigged. Jamaat itself held protests over the rigging allegations in Thakurgaon on Saturday and in Dhaka on Sunday.
The second reason is seen as Jamaat’s refusal to make room for the NCP, the alliance’s second-largest partner, in the coming local elections. The NCP wanted an understanding in several city corporations, including one in Dhaka, and made direct and indirect efforts to that end. But with Jamaat firm on contesting the local elections alone, the NCP is now going ahead with plans to field candidates on its own in all local elections. After changing its candidates in Dhaka’s two city corporations, the party’s central leaders have thrown themselves into campaigning for them. The door has been left open, however, for local understandings among alliance candidates.
NCP leaders say that because the party fought the national election as part of an alliance, its own strength could not be measured. Contesting the local elections on its own will show where the party stands at the grassroots and will strengthen its base across the country.
What NCP leaders say
The hidden distance between Jamaat and the NCP is becoming visible in public. Most recently, no NCP leader attended the opening rally of the 11-party alliance’s long march from Dhaka towards Kushtia on Saturday. In the alliance’s two earlier long marches, from Dhaka to Chattogram and to Rangpur, NCP convener Nahid Islam and many central leaders took part. This time was different. Although the central leaders skipped the opening rally, senior joint convener Hasnat Abdullah, joint conveners Ariful Islam Adib and Abdul Hannan Masud, joint member secretaries SM Saif Mustafiz and Faridul Haque, Khulna divisional organising secretary Shahrin Ira and local leaders and activists joined the convoy.
Top NCP leaders have dismissed as baseless the rumours that the NCP may leave the Jamaat-led alliance. They say that although differences have arisen on several issues, the NCP is not leaving the 11-party alliance, and they believe Jamaat is not trying to break it up either. Instead, NCP leaders say, quarters in government are trying to break the opposition alliance.
Sarwar Tushar, a joint convener and member of the party’s political council, told Amar Desh that the NCP remains in the 11-party alliance and that the rumours of a split have no basis. He accused the government of trying to break up the alliance.
NCP senior joint convener Nasiruddin Patwary also said on Sunday that there is no distance within the alliance on implementing reforms and trying those responsible for the mass killings. “We are united,” he said. A process is under way to form an expanded committee of opposition members of parliament to push the reforms through, and it will soon start work, he said.
But he said the NCP has its own politics and character. Even within the alliance, it will not follow a political culture of backing other parties’ leaders on everything, and it will hold to account anyone in government or opposition who makes a mistake. “We do not do the politics of any alliance, nor the politics of any opposition,” he said.
Both parties prepare for the polls
Jamaat and the NCP are each pressing ahead with their own preparations for the local elections. Jamaat has already made good progress in choosing likely candidates at city corporation, upazila and union level. At an event in the capital on 4 October, the party’s ameer Dr Shafiqur Rahman introduced Mohammad Selim Uddin as its mayoral candidate for Dhaka North City Corporation and Sadik Kayem for Dhaka South.
The NCP announced mayoral candidates for five city corporations, including Dhaka North and South, on 29 March, but later changed its candidates in Dhaka’s two city corporations. On 30 October, convener Nahid Islam announced the new candidates: Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain in the north and Nasiruddin Patwary in the south.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report