BNF: 12 MP candidates and a procession of about 25 people

A small group of band-party members were beating the drums with vigour and enthusiasm on the footpath of Bashabo Bouddha Mandir bus stop. It was a Friday afternoon – the beating drums woke up the vicinity of the largest Bouddha Mandir in the capital.

A couple of men and women were standing beside them – hard to understand the occasion of the beating drums until a black SUV flying the Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF) party flag approached them. 

The flag had five stars inscribed on it. The BNF party head Abul Kalam Azad was seated at the front. He was elected an MP from Dhaka-17 in 2014 and in the 2018 elections, his party bagged 13,289 votes with some 57 candidates filed countrywide.

This time BNF has candidates in about 45 constituencies. Dhaka-9, located in Bashabo and Khilgaon area of the capital, is one of them. 

This party was originally founded by former BNP leader Nazmul Huda. After he stepped down and went on to form the National Human Rights Party in 2014 and then Trinamool BNP in 2015, Azad took over as its chief coordinator and now its president. 

Photo: Masum Billah

By the time Abul Kalam Azad reached to lead the procession to support Shafi Ullah Chowdhury Andolon, their Dhaka-9 candidate contesting on Television symbol, we counted around 20-25 party men gearing up for the rally. 

"We have 12 of our Dhaka MP candidates in this rally today," Sajib Kaiser Mithun, a BNF leader told The Business Standard. Mithun said that he was contesting from Dhaka-16 as an MP candidate. "We have all gathered here to support Andolon Bhai." 

The BNF is one of the parties contesting Bangladesh's 2024 national elections – boycotted by the opposition parties. While the ruling Awami League and allies are contesting, the Jatiya Party, after days of back and forth, also announced to run after reportedly being promised 26 seats from the ruling party.  

On the quest for BNF, when we called Azad to meet him at the party office in Mirpur as per the address registered with the election commission, he advised us to visit their Topkhana office instead. We visited the Topkhana office on Friday only to find it locked. Azad said they would gather at Bashabo playground for election campaigning in the afternoon. 

Photo: Masum Billah

As we patrolled the streets near the playground in the afternoon, we found the neighbourhood flooded with the laminated posters of Awami League candidate Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Prime Minister's special envoy on environment and climate change. As we looked for the posters of the BNF candidate, we came across a few posters of a candidate of a political party named 'National People's Party' contesting on the Mango symbol. 

We got to see some Television posters in the vicinity finally, but no personnel of the symbol were to be seen nearby until Azad told us over the phone that they would gather in front of Bashabo Buddha Mandir. 

When Azad peeped out of the car window while his party men gathered around, the band-party men tuned in the sound of Joy Bangla, Banglar Joy song on their instrument. They were too loud to be around. 

Azad, however, hurt himself a bit while getting out of the car, his party leader Kaiser told us, hence the rally would be further delayed by a few minutes. 

Photo: Masum Billah

"He will join us soon, and we will do mass contact in this area," said Kaiser, BNF's student affairs secretary. 

We met some of their Dhaka candidates there including S M Liton who is contesting in Dhaka-5, M Saiful Islam contesting in Dhaka-8, S M Islam contesting Dhaka-15, Dhaka-9's Andolon and others as most rallying men were MP candidates here and there. 

"Today this is Andolon's campaign day so all of us have come together," Saiful Islam said. "Today Dhaka-9 is officially starting its campaign and we are rallying in support."

Some other candidates brought their posters with them. We read them and went on with conversations, meanwhile, Azad came back and the rally kicked off. 

As we crossed alleys and streets, the BNF candidates were distributing leaflets to onlookers and passersby. Andolon had brought his family members to the rally. They were briskly distributing the leaflets in the Bashabo neighbourhood. 

Among the rallying men were Mominul Islam from Jhenaidah. Wearing ocher-coloured Panjabi, he was distributing leaflets back and forth. 

Introducing himself as a central leader of BNF, he said he was running from all four constituencies of Jhenaidah alone. But later we came to know that less than 50 candidates turned out to be valid finally. When we asked if any of his candidacies survived, he refused to answer us.

As the rally entered the Shabujbag area, we caught up with Dhaka-8's Saiful Islam for a conversation.  

"We will go to each constituency together like this," Saiful told us. 

"If the vote is free and fair, then voters will turn out at the polling stations. The larger parties have more responsibilities. They have to follow the rules and maintain the electoral code of conduct. We are confident that if the election is free and fair, we will win," he said. 

When asked if his party released an election manifesto yet, Saiful said, "We will release our election manifesto from Press Club in a day or two [this week]. We cannot get a room at the moment, that is why the delay." 

Dhaka-5's Liton said, "We are getting good responses from people. Common people who are interested in the vote will go to the poll centres if the election is free and fair. We are 100% confident the election will be free and fair." 

Liton said he is "100% confident" that if the election is free and fair, he will be elected an MP in Dhaka-5. In his constituency, Harunur Rashid Munna is contesting as Awami League candidate. 

Liton, however, hasn't kicked off his campaign in the Dhaka 5 yet. He said he was running for national elections for the first time.

Meanwhile, the band-party men were growing in energy as our small procession was creating a big traffic jam in the narrow streets of Shabujbag. 

They were hammering the crowd with their ear-piercing musical instruments. 

The younger of them had a special drive to chase the street dogs away with a thrashing beat as soon as he spotted a lazy dog dozing around. 

As we went on deep in alleys, more unmaintained streets with open sewerage spelt out stench and dirt. 

Andolon and Kaiser were leading the procession. Kaiser inspired his comrades to "fasten up their RAMs" and wave their hands to people. 

Photo: Masum Billah

Borkotullah, a bearded man in a clerical cap and robe at the rally said he was the joint secretary of the BNF. 

"I am a Television [BNF symbol] candidate from Bogura-2. I am here today to campaign for our party candidate," Borkotullah said. 

"I am 100% confident about my Bogura constituency," he said.  

Just like Liton and other "100% optimistic" candidates, Borkotullah said that he was "100% optimistic" that elections would be free and fair and that he would win.

Given the election is free and fair, "we have filed 46 candidates, we expect 80% of them to win and we will become the main opposition party in the parliament" – a bold statement that could upset the Jatiya Party members. 

The party chairman Azad, however, later corrected that they had 45 candidates this time. Before leaving the rally in a hurry for he was hurt, he said he too was "100% confident" about their success.

However, later when pressed if he shared the confidence of his candidates about emerging as the main opposition party in the parliament, Azad said, "It is important to become optimistic about anything. Those who are not optimistic are not in the elections." 

Then he explained that "this election has become a three-party election of Awami League, Neutrals (of Awami League), and Jatiya Party. It is difficult to say who will become the opposition party." 

"The government has created a problem on this question," he added. "Now who the government wants to be the opp osition – depends on the government."