Bangladesh
spent 15 years under military rule and, although democracy
was restored in 1990, the political scene remains volatile.
The antagonism between the Awami
League, which governed until July 2001, and the ruling
Bangladesh Nationalist Party reflects personal animosity
between their leaders rather than substantial ideological
differences.
Eighty one political parties participated. In spite of the
rise of so many political parties over time, the public
is essentially grouped under two major political parties,
Awami
League and Bangladesh Nationalist party, the next major
parties being Jatiya party and Jamaat-e-islami bangladesh.
With the exception of few among the remaining, all other
parties remained unrepresented in the Jatiya Sangsad.
Political
parties since 1885 The foundation of the All India National
Congress as a formal political party was not immediately
followed by other similar organisations. This was the time
when separatist Muslim politics was gradually gaining ground.
Instead of joining the Congress or forming separate political
parties, the Muslim leaders continued to follow old style
politics of associations. Abdool Luteef's Mohammedan literary
society and Syed Ameer Ali's central National Muhamedan
association followed this pattern. Loyalty to the raj was
the trend of Muslim leadership. All India Muslim League
was formed in 1906 under the dictates of the post-partition
(1905) politics. Nawab khwaja salimullah of Dhaka took the
initiative in forming the Muslim League.
In
addition to National Congress and Muslim League, some revolutionary
groups began to operate from the beginning of the 20th century.
Most important of them were anushilan samiti and the jugantar
party. The central samiti of the Anushilan group appears
to have started at Dhaka in 1906. Three other separate samitis
were also set up with headquarters in Barisal, Faridpur
and Mymensingh. Until 1908 the Central Anushilan Samiti
operated openly as a cultural organisation with secret branches
in many parts of Eastern Bengal, and had its membership
restricted to Hindus.
Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP)
Website:
Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP)
Floated
on September 1,1978 by President Ziaur Rahman, the
BNP was in power for 4 years until March 24, 1982.
The elected BNP President was removed by force in
a military putsch led by General H M Ershad, then
chief of army staff. |
 |
In March 1991, the party returned to power after
winning the general elections in February 1991.
While
launching the party, Ziaur Rahman spelt out the following
fundamental principles to guide its course
a)
A society based on justice and freedom from exploitation;
b) Multi-party democracy;
c) Production oriented politics;
d) People as source of power;
e) Sovereignty;
f) Nationalism;
g) Independent foreign policy;
h) Self-reliance;
i) Peaceful revolution in agriculture, mass literacy, population
control and industrial growth. The party is firmly committed
to its 19-point socio-economic and political programme.
Awami
League
Website:
Awami
League
 |
Awami
League one of the oldest and major political parties in
Bangladesh. It was founded in Dhaka on 23 June 1949 at a
convention of the leaders and workers known to have been
a faction of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League and headed
by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Abul Hashim. The new party
was named East Pakistan Awami Muslim League. It was established
with Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani as president, Ataur
Rahman Khan, Sakhawat Hossain and Ali Ahmed Khan as vice-presidents,
Shamsul Huq of Tangail as general secretary, Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman (then interned in jail), Khondakar Mostaq Ahmad and
AK Rafiqul Husain as joint secretaries, and Yar Mohammad
Khan as treasurer. At the party's third council meeting
held in Dhaka on 21-23 October 1955, the word 'Muslim' was
dropped out from the name of the party to make it sound
secular. The party believes in welfare-oriented economy.
It has front organisations among the students, labours,
peasants, youths and women.
Jatiya
Party
Website:
Jatiya
Party
The Party, floated on 1 September 1986, was the brainchild
of General H M Ershad who later became its Chairman. Ershad
contested the 15 October 1986 presidential elections as
the nominee of the party. It won the 1986 and 1988 general
elections which never gained credibility.
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh
Website:
Jamaat-e-Islami
Bangladesh
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh is the largest and most
influential Islamic political party in Bangladesh. In the
last general election (2001) it secured 18 seats (among
300 seats) in the parliament and awarded 2 ministries for
its role in the formation of the four-party alliance that
gained a landslide victory in the 2001 Parliamentary Election.
Today the BNP-Jamaat alliance enjoys a two-third majority
in the Parliament.
Jamaat
is basically an ideological party that advocates for greater
role of Islam in public life. The main objective of Jamaat
is the establishment of Deen or Islamic social order through
ethical, peaceful, constructive, democratic, and constitutional
means. Jamaat claims that it lives up to its standards since
its inception in 1941.
Muslim
League
muslim
league
Muslim League established in December 1906, initially led
by Aga Khan and ultimately by muhammed ali jinnah, was instrumental
in creating public opinion in favour of Muslim nationalism
and finally in achieving Pakistan in 1947. The background
of the foundation of the Muslim League at Dhaka on 30 December
1906 may be traced back to the establishment of the indian
national congress in 1885. The Western educated Hindu elite
with the objectives of sharing power with the raj and motivating
it to establish representative government in India established
the Congress. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the most widely respected
leader of the Muslim community, warned the Indian Muslims
not to join the Congress in the interest of the Muslim community.
He started his movement by establishing a college at Aligarh.
Sir Syed and like him, many other Muslim leaders believed
that the Muslims as a downtrodden nation could get more
benefit from the loyalty to the British rather than from
any opposition to them. He called upon his followers to
devote their energy and attention to popularising English
education among the Muslims. This perception and consequent
activism has been known as the Aligarh Movement.
Bengal
Provincial Muslim League with the partition of Bengal in
1905, two wings of the Bengal Muslim League were formed
separately in the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam,
and in West Bengal. To help forming the Eastern Bengal and
Assam Muslim League (EBAML) a provisional committee was
formed in early July 1908 with chowdhury kazemuddin ahmad
siddiky as president and Nawab Salimullah as secretary.
The EBAML was given a concrete shape on 17 March 1911 at
a meeting held at ahsan manzil with Nawab Salimullah and
Khan Bahadur nawab ali chaudhury as president and secretary
respectively. Eleven noted Muslims from East Bengal were
elected vice-presidents while Khalilur Rahman and Maulvi
Ameruddin Ahmed were elected joint secretaries.
Central
National Muhamedan Association
Central
National Muhamedan Association
Central National Muhamedan Association was a political organisation
founded by syed ameer ali in Calcutta in 1877. Ameer Ali
was the first Muslim leader to visualise the need of such
a political organisation since he believed that efforts
directed through an organisation were more effective than
that originating from an individual leader.
Mohammedan Literary Society
Mohammedan
Literary Society
Mohammedan Literary Society was founded by Nawab Abdool
Luteef (Abdul Latif) in Kolkata in 1863. He himself was
its secretary and his residence at 16 Taltala (Calcutta)
was its head office. The management committee of the society
was formed with Prince Mahomed Ruheemoodin of Mysore as
President, and Prince Mirza Jahan Kader Bahadur of Oudh
& Prince Mahomed Nusseroodin Hyder of Mysore as Vice-Presidents.
There were 12 members in the committee, notable among whom
were Prince Mirza Asman Jah Bahadur and Prince Mahomed Jah
Ali Bahadur of Oudh and Prince Mahomed Harmuz Shah and Prince
Mahomed Bakhtyar Shah of Mysore. The Lieutenant Governor
of Bengal was made the Patron of the Society. More than
500 Muslims from all parts of India joined the society as
ordinary members. Deliberations in the monthly meetings
were held in Urdu, Persian, Arabic and English languages.
Communist Party of Bangladesh
Communist
Party of Bangladesh
Communist Party of Bangladesh a successor organisation to
the All India Communist Party which was formed at a convention
of the nationalist revolutionaries held in Cownpur on 26
December 1925 with Singar Bhelu Chettiar of Madras as president,
S.V Ghate and G.P Bagarhatta as secretaries.
The
Communist leaders in East Pakistan had important role in
organising the language movement. In 1954 elections the
Party supported the united front. Out of seven provincial
candidates nominated by the Party, four were elected. With
the promulgation of 92-A and the establishment of Governor's
rule in the province in 1954, the Communist Party was declared
banned.
Forward Block
Forward
Block
Forward Bloc a political party set
up by subhas chandra bose. On his resignation from the Congress
presidentship, he formed it in 1939 as a radical faction within
the framework of the Congress. He declared that the object
behind the formation of the new party was 'to rally all radical
and anti-imperialist progressive elements in the country on
the basis of a minimum programme representing the greatest
common measure of agreement among radicals of all shades of
opinion'. He, however, hoped that all radicals ie socialists,
communists and Kisan Sabhaits etc would respond to his call.
The
first All-India Forward Bloc conference was held in Bombay
in July 1939. The conference approved the formation of a 'Left
Consolidation Committee'. In July 1939 Subhas Bose announced
the Committee of the Forward Bloc. It included: Subhas Bose,
president; Sardul Singh Caveeshar (Punjab), vice-president;
Lal Shankarlal (Delhi), general secretary; Pandit B Tripathi
and K F Nariman (Bombay), secretaries. Other prominent members
were Annapurniah (Andhra Pradesh), and Senapati Bapat, and
HV Kamnath (Bombay). Satya Ranjan Bakshi, one of the trusted
confidants of Subhas Bose, was appointed secretary of the
Bengal Provincial Forward Bloc.
Praja
Party
Praja
Party
Praja Party a council party that made its debut in the beginning
of July I929 as a loose parliamentary group. Evolving with
the maiden name of the Bengal Praja Party (Bengal Tenant
Party) it transformed itself by the end of the year into
a public platform with the name of the Nikhil Banga Praja
Samiti (All Bengal Tenant Association) and was renamed the
Krishak (Krsak) Praja Party (Peasant Tenant Party) in April
1936 mainly for the purpose of fighting the first provincial
elections under the Government of India Act, 1935 thus turning
it more or less into an electioneering machinery. It went
into oblivion almost immediately after the I937 elections,
notwithstanding its electoral success.
Bengal Provincial Krishak Sabha
Bengal
Provincial Krishak Sabha
Bengal Provincial Krishak Sabha (BPKS) was established in
1936 by left Congress activists to organise the peasantry
through rural reconstruction programmes and to stage an
agrarian revolution. Evidently, the Bengal Provincial Krishak
Sabha (peasants association) was set up to counter activities
of the krishak praja party of ak fazlul huq. From the beginning
of the electoral politics carried on under the constitution
of 1919, the political leadership began to concentrate on
rural support.
Islamic Oikyo Jote
Islamic Oikyo Jote (IOJ) It was established in 1990 consisting
of seven parties: Khelafat Majlis, Nezam-e-Islam, Faraizi
Jamaat, Islami Morcha, Ulama Committee, a splinter group
of NAP (Bhasani), and Islami Shashantantra Andolon. Its
main objective is to steer a united political movement with
a view to establishing an Islamic polity modeled upon the
Khilafat. The organisation of the IOJ consists of a Majlish-e-Sura
with five members from each of its component parties, and
an advisory council. In the general elections held in 1996,
IOJ won only one parliamentary seat.
Gana-forum
Gana-forum Kamal Hossain, an eminent lawyer and a former
leader of Awami League, floated Gana-forum in 1992. It was
established as a political party in August 1993. It is a
left-liberal party, which works for a stronger civil society
and a rule based egalitarian society.
