This torch can't be lit alone

In the 2014 Jatiya Sangsad polls, amid mass boycott by the opposition parties, the Hasanul Haque Inu-led Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) party fielded 24 candidates, and won in five seats.

Of the winners, four contested with the party's own electoral symbol 'torch', with support from the AL, while one fought with AL's 'boat'.

This was the only time the party bagged five seats. It was also the only time it won by contesting with the party's own symbol.

In the last national polls in 2018, it again partnered with the AL and won two seats by contesting with the 'boat' symbol.

An analysis of Election Commission data shows that Inu and his party's success largely depend on siding with the AL. In the three elections from 1991, the JSD had contested as a single party or teamed up with its other factions, but failed to gain even a single seat.

With the next JS polls only a month away, the Inu-led JSD is once again looking to secure its place in the JS following the proven method of banking on AL support to win the battle.

"Sheikh Hasina has clearly said that there is a coalition and that the coalition will hold elections together. We will be able to settle the issue of seat sharing. There will be bargaining regarding transactions... Bargaining happens between friends... At the end of the day we will go out with a smile, holding hands," Inu said in a press conference on Tuesday (5 December) following a meeting with 14-Party Alliance coordinator Amir Hossain Amu.

Formation, factions and alliances

The original Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSoD) was formed in 1972 by a group of Bangladesh Chhatra League leaders who broke away from the Awami League over ideological differences. On 31 October of that year, a seven-member convening committee of the party was announced with Mohammad Abdul Jalil as the president and ASM Abdur Rab as the joint convener. Almost two months later, a central committee comprising 105 members was announced in its additional council.

In the 1973 JS polls, it won one seat. In the next JS polls in 1979 it won eight seats. But factional conflict broke apart the party in 1980 and a group of leaders, led by Khalequzzaman Bhuiyan, left the organisation to form Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (BSD).

The BSD split into two factions two years later with its leader AFM Mahbubul Haq forming the BSD (Mahbub).

During the period of Zia's rule, the JaSod split up twice.

During the regime of HM Ershad, ASM Abdur Rab and Shahjahan Siraj were heading two separate factions.

By 1986, led by Kazi Aref Ahmed and Hasanul Haq Inu, a JSD faction began to gain familiarity as JSD (Inu).

In the 1991 JS polls, Inu's party competed as a single party with 68 candidates and failed to win a single seat. Almost all of its candidates lost their security deposits.

In 1996, Inu again led the party to polls with increased nominees. The result was similar. None of its 76 candidates won and almost all of them lost their security deposits.

Following the defeat, in 1997, three splinter groups of the original JaSoD- JSD (Rab), BSD (Mahabub) and JSD (Inu)- teamed up again under the leadership of Moin Uddin Khan Badal. ASM Rab was elected president of the party and Hasanul Haque Inu its general secretary.

The united JSD joined the 2001 polls with 76 candidates. But they still failed to secure a seat.

In 2008, the Inu-led JSD teamed up with the AL. Its leaders emerged victorious in three seats after contesting with the 'boat' symbol.

Since then it has always joined the AL-led coalition.

For the upcoming election, Inu's party has fielded 91 candidates, the highest since 1991.

Inu hopes his party will do better this time than in the previous elections.

"We will hold elections in some constituencies with our own 'torch' symbol and in some constituencies with the 'boat' symbol," he told The Business Standard.