NCP to win 150 seats in next election, says Nasiruddin Patwary
NN ONLINE:
Chief Coordinator of National Citizen Party (NCP) Nasiruddin Patwary on Monday said his party is set to win 150 out of 300 seats, while BNP to secure 50-100 seats in the upcoming parliamentary elections, likely to be held in early February 2026.
“According to our every projection, We, NCP, are going to secure 150 seats in this election, Inshallah,” he told reporters at Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital after a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin. A three-member NCP delegation, led by Patwary, met the CEC at the latter’s office to discuss allocation of an electoral symbol, seeking one among ‘Lily’, ‘Red Lily’ or ‘White Lily’ for NCP.
Patwary said, “We’ve done our surveys and we think there is a possibility for NCP to win around 150 seats. We have already called all of our district coordinators to Dhaka to discuss these issues. We asked them to take preparations in the field.”
Replying to a question on how many seats BNP and Jamaat would gain in the next election, the NCP leader avoided specifics but hinted BNP’s strength is declining. “BNP may not cross 50 to 100 seats. But now you can see the real scenario, where things are going down.”He, however, did not predict any number of seats Jamaat may gain in the next election.
Patwary said his party will field candidates for 300 seats as there is a situation to confirm the victory in 150 constituencies. “We’ll fight to win in 300 constituencies,” he added.Regarding the election timeframe, the NCP chief coordinator expressed doubt about the arrangement of the election in February 2026.
“There’s still confusion about whether the election will be held in February,” he said, adding that the government and everyone are insisting that the election must be held in February.
He said no solution has been found to place the July Charter within a legal framework. “Still there are two imminent battles before us here – one is completion of the reform process and another is speedy transformation towards democracy,” he added.
Countering the allegation that Jamaat and NCP do not want the election to be held soon, the NCP leader dismissed the allegation as ‘propaganda’. “If anyone wants a fair election in Bangladesh immediately, the NCP will be the first to want it, because we couldn’t vote (for a long time),” he said.
About the election symbol issue, Patwary said they’ve asked the EC to allocate one of the three symbols – Lily, Red Lily and White Lily. “We are not moving away from our position (demand over symbol allocation),” he said.
Responding to another question if NCP will forge an alliance or merge with Gono Odhikar Parishad, Patwary said a larger youth alliance is set to emerge in the country’s political arena “We, from a single platform, are consolidating all the banners that have been there for the past 15 years and a larger youth alliance is coming,” he said.
Another delegation member, NCP Joint Member Secretary Jashirul Islam Musa, said if the Election Commission decides to register a political party, it is legally bound to publish the notification in at least two newspapers in line with the Political Party Registration Rules, 2008.
He said they discussed this with the CEC and he assured them the notifications will be published soon. “We’ve asked the CEC today that any one of the three symbols we had requested, — Lily, Red Lily and White Lily — should be mentioned (against NCP) in the notification.”
NCP joint convener Khaled Saifullah said they have asked the Election Commission to allow expatriate Bangladeshis who have no national identity cards or smart NID cards to cast vote in the national election using their passports or old NID cards.