Bangladesh’s student protest leaders launch a new party to challenge old power blocs

# Bangladesh’s student protest leaders launch a new party to challenge old power blocs

Event date: 2025-02-28. Bangladesh’s protest generation has stepped into formal politics, with student leaders behind last year’s mass uprising announcing a new party they hope can break the country’s long-running two-party dominance.

The evidence packet says the National Citizen Party, or NCP, is being headed by Nahid Islam, one of the best-known figures from the protests that helped force out Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last August. Islam had recently served as an adviser in the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

At a rally in Dhaka, Islam said the July 2024 uprising had opened a path toward a “second republic” and argued for a new democratic constitution to prevent future authoritarianism. The packet presents that message as the party’s founding pitch: participatory politics, a rewritten constitutional order and a break from the old party structures.

That old structure remains the NCP’s biggest obstacle. Since independence in 1971, Bangladeshi politics has been dominated by Hasina’s Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The packet says both parties have faced accusations of corruption, authoritarianism and failure to address inequality and social injustice. The NCP is trying to position itself as a third force.

The party’s supporters see an opening. Political analyst Masud Kamal told DW that many Bangladeshis have had limited choices on the ballot and that a third or fourth force could provide relief. But he also questioned whether the new party has a clear ideology or a durable voter base beyond urban student networks.

That concern matters because the uprising that toppled Hasina was much broader than the student organizers alone. The packet notes that workers, farmers, rickshaw pullers and housewives were part of the 2024 movement. Whether the new party can translate that coalition into a political organization is one of the key unanswered questions.

The NCP has also made itself visible through policy positions. Akhtar Hossain, a representative of the party, said it rejects both Islamophobia and religious extremism and wants “participatory politics” centered on civic dignity. Another NCP figure, Samantha Sharmin, accused a rival party of obstructing national unity after Hasina’s fall, though she did not name it directly.

The BNP, for its part, says it welcomes competition but does not view the NCP as a major threat. The packet quotes BNP politician Harunur Rashid saying his party has already proven itself to voters and that the new movement will need time before it can compete seriously.

The next election, expected in late 2025 or early 2026, will be the real test. The packet says the NCP wants a new constituent assembly and a rewritten constitution, while the BNP prefers parliamentary elections first. The NCP also wants the interim government to ban the Awami League, a demand the BNP has not backed.

Bangladesh’s political future is still unsettled after Hasina’s ouster. What this new party makes clear is that the uprising is not ending at the street level; it is now moving into the arena where power is turned into institutions, alliances and votes.