NCP, Khelafat Majlish eye more seats as Islami Andolan leaves alliance
Staff Reporter:
The Jamaat-e-Islami–led electoral alliance is set to redistribute 47 constituencies originally kept aside for Islami Andolan Bangladesh, after the Chormonai-based party formally decided to contest the upcoming national election independently.
Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish Amir Maulana Mamunul Haque said on Saturday that the vacant seats would now be shared among the alliance partners through the same consultative process used earlier.
“From the beginning, seats were allocated through mutual understanding. Since Islami Andolan is no longer part of the alliance, the remaining seats will also be distributed in the same way,” Mamunul Haque told reporters at Jamaat’s central office in Moghbazar after meeting Jamaat’s Nayeb-e-Ameer Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher.He said that in each constituency, the candidate considered electorally strongest among the alliance partners would be nominated as the sole candidate.
On Thursday night, Jamaat-e-Islami and nine other parties in the alliance announced seat-sharing arrangements for 253 constituencies, deliberately leaving 47 seats vacant in the hope of accommodating Islami Andolan Bangladesh. On Friday afternoon, however, Islami Andolan, led by Chormonai Pir Mufti Syed Muhammad Rezaul Karim, formally declared that it would contest the election on its own, effectively ending efforts to bring Islamist parties under a single electoral umbrella.
With Islami Andolan’s departure, the initiative to consolidate Islamist votes within one alliance has suffered a major setback.
The National Citizen Party (NCP), one of the newer partners in the alliance, believes the exit will not have a “major impact” on the election, but sees a clear opportunity to increase its own share of seats.
Speaking on Friday night at a press conference at the NCP central election office in Jigatola, party spokesperson and election management committee chief Asif Mahmud Sajib Bhuiyan said the door for dialogue with Islami Andolan remained open. “We are still hopeful that Islami Andolan will return to the alliance,” he said.
Party sources say NCP was initially allocated 30 seats under the current arrangement, but had from the outset demanded between 35 and 40 constituencies. In pursuit of that goal, NCP candidates have reportedly submitted nomination papers in 47 seats. Since roughly 50 seats had been informally kept in mind for Islami Andolan, NCP leaders now believe their bargaining position has strengthened.
According to those sources, NCP has already begun discussions with Jamaat over a revised distribution and hopes its share could increase by another 10 to 15 seats.
NCP joint convener and election committee secretary Monira Sharmin confirmed that negotiations were ongoing. “Islami Andolan’s departure is unexpected. But if they are not in the alliance, it will not have much impact,” she said. “After their exit, there is now a possibility of some increase in NCP’s seats, and discussions are continuing accordingly.”
The current arrangement announced on Thursday allocates 179 seats to Jamaat-e-Islami, 30 to NCP and 20 to Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis, with the rest distributed among smaller partners. The 47 unallocated seats had been kept open specifically to persuade Islami Andolan to remain within the alliance.
Mamunul Haque expressed hope that the redistribution process would be completed before January 19, the last day for withdrawing nomination papers. “Once the final decision is made, candidates of other parties in those seats will withdraw, leaving only the alliance nominee,” he said.
Asked whether Islami Andolan’s exit would weaken the alliance electorally, Mamunul Haque said he did not expect a major impact. “We collectively called on people in the spirit of unity, and we have not moved away from that commitment. So I don’t think it will have a big effect,” he said.
However, he ruled out any further seat-sharing talks with Islami Andolan at this stage. “At this moment, there is no scope for seat adjustment with Islami Andolan. Political understanding, however, is still possible,” he added.