Jamaat-e-Islami has decided to float its candidate as independent but backed by the BNP-led alliance in the upcoming general election.
Last month, the Election Commission scrapped the party’s registration ruling it out from any election in line with a 2013 High Court order.
A key ally in the 20-party Alliance, Jamaat, helped the collation, which was then Four-party Alliance, to assume office in 2001.
The party had been using ‘weighing scales’ as its polls symbol, but in March 2017, it was taken off the list of symbols reserved for candidates in parliamentary elections by the Election Commission following a Supreme Court order.
Amidst these realities, policymakers of the party, which opposed Bangladesh’s independence during the 1971 war, has decided to float its aspirants as independent candidates.
“We will take part in the election with the coalition and since our symbol has been dropped, so our candidates will run as independent,” Ehsanul Mahbub, a member of the its Central Working Committee, told Bangla Tribune.
But the party is yet to inform the BNP. “Jamaat did not inform us on how it will contest the election,” BNP Standing Committee member Nazrul Islam Khan told Bangla Tribune around 9pm on Sunday.
Jamaat, however, had taken the decision to float candidates as independent quite some time ago. When the issue was raised during 20-party Alliance’s Saturday meeting, Jamaat representative Abdul Halim said they would need a day to let their decision know.
Several leaders of the party’s policymaking forum told Bangla Tribune that an initial screening of candidates in more than 100 constituencies were finalised back in August.
However, with the changed political landscape after the BNP joined the Jatiya Oikya Front, Jamaat now understands that the number will be significantly low now.
A senior BNP leader, who sits on the party’s policymaking National Standing Committee, said that the case for Jamaat is now different as it has lost registration and polls symbol.
“Jamaat’s election history shows that it has won in 20 to 21 seats where its candidates contesting with weighing scales symbol. They will be asked to focus on those constituencies,” he told Bangla Tribune on condition of anonymity.
According to Jamaat insiders, the party wants at least 30 seats for its candidates.
But they also say that the priority now is not the election rather existing as a party. BNP’s ties with Jamaat were the key factor for the launching of Jatiya Oikya Front getting delayed by almost two months.
Jamaat, however, has maintained from the very beginning that it has no reservations on a larger coalition.
Elaborating on the process of floating independent candidates, a member of Jamaat’s policymaking Majlish-e Shura said on condition of anonymity, “Candidates will file nomination as independents but will be backed by the alliance, which means there will be no other candidate from the Front or the Alliance for that seat.”
On Sunday, two former Jamaat MPs Shajahan Chowdhury and Nayebe Amir ANM Shamsul Islam have collected nomination form for the Chattogram-15 constituency while Chattogram’s Banshkali Upazila Chairman and local Jamaat chief Jahirul Islam bought nomination form for Chattogram -16 as independent aspirants.