JaPa wiped out as voters abandon Hasina ally

Staff Reporter :

The Jatiya Party has been completely shut out of parliament in the 13th general election, failing to win a single seat, showing the party’s worst defeat in four decades.

Founded by former president Hussain Muhammad Ershad, the party contested 196 constituencies but did not secure victory in any of them and received utter rejection from the voters.

The outcome marks the first time since the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1991 that it will have no representation in the Jatiya Sangsad.

The collapse was most visible in Rangpur, long regarded as the party’s political base and Ershad’s home turf.
Party Chairman GM Quader finished third in Rangpur-3 with 43,385 votes.

The seat was won by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami candidate Mahbubur Rahman Belal, who secured 175,827 votes, while Bangladesh Nationalist Party nominee Mohammad Ali Sarkar received 84,578 votes.

In Gaibandha-1, Secretary General Shamim Haider Patwary also came third, polling 33,976 votes. The constituency was taken by Jamaat’s Md Majedur Rahman with 140,726 votes, followed by BNP candidate Khandaker Ziaul Islam Mohammad Ali with 37,997 votes.

Across Rangpur’s six constituencies, Jamaat won five seats, while the remaining seat went to its ally, the National Citizen Party. BNP candidates finished second in each of the six seats, underscoring a clear bipolar contest in the region – with the Jatiya Party largely sidelined.

In Rangpur-1, Jamaat’s Raihan Siraji secured 174,245 votes against BNP’s Mokarram Hossain Sujon with 69,131. Rangpur-2 went to ATM Azaharul Islam with 135,556 votes, defeating the BNP’s Mohammad Ali Sarkar, who received 80,538.

Rangpur-4 was won by NCP’s Akhter Hossen with 149,966 votes, narrowly ahead of BNP’s Emdadul Haque Bhorsa with 140,564. Rangpur-5 and Rangpur-6 were also captured by Jamaat nominees.

The party’s electoral fall has been gradual but steady. It won 34 seats in 2014, 22 in 2018 and 11 in 2024. Its vote share dropped from around 7 per cent in 2014 to roughly 3 per cent in the last election. This year, that decline culminated in total elimination.

Historically, the Jatiya Party had been a significant parliamentary force. It secured 35 seats in 1991 and 32 in June 1996, later supporting the Awami League government. In 2008, as part of the Awami League-led grand alliance, it won 28 seats.

But its long-standing alliance with the Awami League over 17 years gradually blurred its political identity.
Following the July 2024 uprising that led to the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government, public criticism intensified. Many voters viewed the party as having repeatedly legitimised disputed elections under the previous administration.

When the Awami League chose not to contest the latest polls, the Jatiya Party attempted to test its independent strength. The results suggest that much of its traditional support base had already shifted elsewhere.

The party’s internal cohesion weakened sharply after Ershad’s death in 2019. Leadership tensions between Rowshan Ershad and GM Quader fuelled factionalism.

Separate groups led by figures such as Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury and Anwar Hossain Manju further fragmented the organisation.

Several senior leaders – including Anisul Islam Mahmud, Mujibul Haque Chunnu, Ruhul Amin Howlader and Kazi Firoz Rashid – formed factions ahead of the election but were unable to contest due to symbol-related complications.

Grassroots networks thinned over time, with many activists and organisers defecting to rival parties.
Analysts say the party became increasingly dependent on central leadership, without the organisational depth required to compete in a rapidly shifting political landscape.

The verdict appears to reflect more than campaign missteps. It signals a broader post-2024 political realignment, with voters distancing themselves from parties seen as aligned with the ousted regime.

Despite fielding one of the highest numbers of candidates after the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Andolan Bangladesh, the Jatiya Party failed to convert presence into credibility.

In districts once considered sympathetic – Rangpur, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Gaibandha and Nilphamari – it could not retain even symbolic influence.

The result suggests that the party’s crisis is not merely electoral but structural. Years of identity erosion, internal division and shifting voter loyalties have converged at a decisive moment.

For a party that once held the balance of power between major rivals, the 13th parliamentary election may well mark the end of its era as a central player in the country’s politics.