Tariqat Federation: With only 16 candidates bagging 6k votes in last election, party now nominates 123 seats

In the 11th parliamentary elections in 2018, the Bangladesh Tariqat Federation independently fielded 16 candidates who, collectively, received a disappointing 6,087 votes, leading to the forfeiture of their security deposits. Despite the previous setback, the party has returned in the current elections, putting forth 123 candidates with its electoral symbol of "flower garlands."

However, in the last general election, Tariqat Federation Chairman Syed Najibul Bashar Maizbhandari secured victory in the Chattogram-2 constituency as the 14-party alliance candidate on the ticket of the ruling Awami League.

In a press release issued on Tuesday, the party announced candidates for 123 out of the 300 constituencies in the upcoming 12th national elections.

Data from the Election Commission shows that the Tariqat Federation received a total of 244,517 votes across all 17 constituencies. Notably, Najibul alone secured 238,430 of the votes.

Najibul has been nominated once again for the same constituency by his party, and he is expected to run the race using their own electoral symbol, while the Awami League has nominated its own party candidate.

Khadijatul Anwar Soni, a lawmaker for the reserved women's seat and the daughter of former lawmaker Rafiqul Anwar, is set to contest the Chattogram-2 election with the "boat," the electoral symbol of the ruling party.

Shah Muhammad Ali Hossain, organising secretary of the Tariqat Federation, told The Business Standard, "We are participating in the elections as part of an alliance and have requested 13 seats from the alliance. Additionally, our party plans to field candidates outside the designated alliance seats. Given more time, we could have considered candidates for up to 200 seats."

Speaking about fielding such a large number of candidates this time, Ali Hossain said, "We have workers all over the country, and there are committees as well. For this reason, we have fielded candidates."

He mentioned that the Tariqat Federation received registration with the Election Commission in 2008.

Syed Najibul Bashar Maizbhandari initially became a Member of Parliament on an Awami League ticket in the 1991 elections. Subsequently, he switched to the BNP but faced defeat in the 2001 elections.

Later, he departed from the BNP and formed the Tariqat Federation. In 2014, he was elected as an MP from the Tariqat Federation, which was a member of the Awami League-led alliance.

In the 2014 elections, the Tariqat Federation contested three seats and emerged victorious in two of them.