Internal fissures within the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) have erupted into open defiance in Jhenaidah following the central leadership’s decision to nominate Rashed Khan for the Jhenaidah-4 constituency. Mr Khan, the former General Secretary of Gono Odhikar Parishad who formally joined the BNP just days ago, has been met with a wall of resistance from local organisers. On Sunday, 28th December, the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD)—the party’s influential student wing—formally announced their rejection of a scheduled electoral workshop in protest. The training session, which was intended to prepare activists for the upcoming polls on Monday, has been boycotted as the local base refuses to campaign for a candidate they describe as a “political interloper.”
The resentment stems from a perceived betrayal of the grassroots activists who have spearheaded the party’s movements on the ground for years. Mousum Uddin Shovan, the Member Secretary of the Kaliganj Upazila Chhatra Dal, voiced the frustrations of many, stating that Rashed Khan was nowhere to be found during the party’s most difficult periods of struggle. The nomination is particularly galling to local members because three established local aspirants were bypassed in favour of Mr Khan, who is natively from Muraridah village in Jhenaidah Sadar—an area outside the Jhenaidah-4 (Kaliganj) jurisdiction.
The protests have taken a dramatic and visceral turn. In a series of highly symbolic acts, BNP and Jubo Dal activists were seen performing public penance, clutching their ears and pledging to abandon the party’s politics in disgust. Some went as far as donning burial shrouds (Kafan cloth) during street demonstrations, signaling that they would rather face political death than accept a candidate “imposed from above.” The local units have issued a collective warning of mass resignations if the nomination is not rescinded, posing a significant threat to the party’s electoral viability in the region.
To bolster his legitimacy, Rashed Khan reportedly applied to transfer his voter registration to the Kaliganj area on Saturday, immediately after being welcomed into the party by Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. However, this administrative maneuver has done little to soothe the anger of the Jhenaidah-4 cadres. They maintain that a candidate must have deep local roots and a history of shared sacrifice to lead the constituency. As the deadline for finalising candidacies approaches, the BNP high command faces a difficult choice: uphold their strategic appointment or bow to the mounting pressure of a grassroots rebellion.