New Delhi: In a significant result, the de facto student wing of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI)—the Islami Chhatra Shibir—swept through the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) elections Wednesday. Shibir-backed candidates won 23 of 28 spots, including the top three posts of vice president, general secretary and assistant general secretary.
The DUCSU polls are the first major polls in Bangladesh since the ouster of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August last year, and are considered a bellwether for the political currents in the South Asian nation. Reportedly, this is the first time an Islamist-backed students group has won a union election since 1971.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-backed students organisation—the Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD)—drew a blank for the top posts in the DUCSU. Shibir’s Shadik Kayem clinched the vice president’s post with 14,042 votes, while the JCD-backed candidate and Kayem’s nearest competitor, Abidul Islam Khan, received 5,708 votes.
S.M. Farhad and Mohammad Mohiddun Khan, both Shibir-backed candidates, won their respective positions—general secretary and assistant general secretary respectively, beating the JCD-backed candidates.
JCD’s Mohammad Abidul Islam Khan rejected the results as a “farce” in a post on the social media website Facebook, while highlighting irregularities in the counting. The turnout for the student union polls was between 70 percent and 80 percent of registered students.
In a follow up statement Wednesday, Khan said, “Since noon I’ve found problems one by one in different votes, talked about them all day. Still hope that a proper investigation and appropriate decision of all these allegations will come from the administration.”
Political commentator Rezaul Karim Rony told ThePrint that the Shibir ran a “strategic campaign” renaming their student panel to ‘United Students Alliance’ as a means to appeal to those students who may have reservations about their ties with the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Rony adds: “They (Shibir) ran a strong campaign under a different name which could have played a role in receiving votes from students who may have had reservations about its political history.”
Another observer highlighted that just before the polls that were held Tuesday, BNP-backed candidates and others claimed that Shibir-backed candidates were “Pakistanis” which further alienated student voters.
The irritation felt by some of the student voters over claims of Shibir being “Pakistanis” is akin to Hasina’s “Razakar” (traitor) claim last year, which set off the heaviest protests leading to her eventual downfall, the observer added.
Abdul Qauder, one of the leaders of the Students Against Discrimination (SAD)—the front that led the protests against Hasina last year—came out against the polls, according to reports.
The SAD’s protests last year paved the way for Hasina’s ouster and the eventual appointment of Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus as the interim leader of Bangladesh in August 2024. The SAD failed to make any impact in the polls.
Hasina’s Awami League student wing—the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL)—was banned from participating in the polls. The interim administration banned the BCL in October 2024, labelling it a “terrorist organisation” for its alleged violent attacks against protesters in August last year.
JeI consolidates in Bangladesh
Hasina’s Awami League was banned from political activities earlier this year, while Yunus has promised to hold elections early next year. The BNP has emerged as the largest party in Bangladesh since Hasina’s ouster. However, the Jamaat-e-Islami has moved to consolidate its position following its role in the protests last year.
The JeI had been banned for over a decade by Hasina, but this was revoked last month by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. The Jamaat last month held meetings with Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, during the latter’s visit to Dhaka.
The return of the JeI has raised concerns in New Delhi, given its support of Pakistan and historical links with Islamabad. The JeI has been in government in Bangladesh previously, being a part of a coalition with the BNP in the early years of this millennium.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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