Will luck side with BNF again as it eyes JS polls with 55 candidates?

In the 2018 national election, the Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF) suffered a disastrous loss. All of its 57 candidates garnered only 13,289 votes. None of them won a seat and ultimately lost their security deposits as well.

This time, the party has nominated 55 candidates, hoping the public will answer their call and vote for 'television'- the party symbol.

"We will now go to the public. We will get what the people give us. The outcome lies in their hands," Abul Kalam Azad, the party's founder and chairman, told The Business Standard.

To date, Azad is the only member of the party, who has been able to secure a win in a national election for the party. 

Registered in 2013, Azad's party first participated in a parliamentary election in 2014, when major oppositions, including the BNP, boycotted the polls.

The BNF had fielded 22 candidates in the polls, and in a stroke of beginner's luck, Azad won the fight for Dhaka-17 with 43,585 votes. His nearest rival MA Hannan Mridha, an independent candidate, got only 4,046 votes. 

Meanwhile, the rest of the 21 BNF candidates, none of whom won, altogether had garnered 64,405 votes in the election.

Azad's win was made easy after the late Hussain Mohammad Ershad, who headed the Jatiya Party back then, withdrew his candidature for three seats, including Dhaka-17.

He also had the backing of the Awami League as the ruling party did not nominate any candidates for the seat. 

But things have gone downhill for Azad and his party since then.

In the 2018 national election, the party once again sided with the AL but failed to make any gains.

"We fielded 57 candidates in the last election. Three days before the election… on the request of the prime minister, we supported the Awami League," Azad told TBS.

The BNF did not bag any seats in the election.

Two years later, Azad participated in the Chattogram-4 by-election. Being born in the Popadia village of Boalkhali upazila under the constituency, Azad was expected to have a good fight.

However, he received only 1,185 votes. He lost the fight along with his security deposit.

The 12th Jatiya Sangsad polls is set to take place on 7 January 2024. The filing of nomination papers has ended with a total of 2,713 candidates vying to contest in the polls.

A total of 32 political parties are eyeing the JS with 1,966 candidates.

With the BNP and a few other opposition parties boycotting the election, the Azad-led BNF now hopes for a good gain this time.

"We will be satisfied if we can win in 5 to 10 seats," Azad told TBS.

How the BNF came to be

The BNF was formed in August 2012 by Azad and the late Nazmul Huda, two months after the latter resigned from the BNP. However, a few months later, Huda was expelled from the party by Azad following disagreements between the two over the control of BNF.

However, Azad told TBS that the party was formed in 2011 and Huda joined the party in 2013.

"Nazmul Huda came with us around 2013. As he is a senior politician, I made him the chairman of the party's Conference Preparation Committee in the hope of getting some people from the BNP.

"After becoming the chairman of the committee, he started acting like he had become the chairman of the party itself. He did not notice the structure of the party. Finally, he filed a case against the registration of the party.

"Then the Election Commission informed us that we will not get the registration because our chairman has filed a writ against the registration," said Azad.

Following his expulsion, Nazmul Huda went on to form the Bangladesh National Alliance (BNA) on 7 May 2014. Later that year, he formed the Bangladesh Manobadhikar Party (BMP) in November.

Finally, in 2015, Huda formed the Trinomool BNP, which is participating in the upcoming JS polls for the first time.