Post-August 5 politics: BNP, Jamaat drifting apart

The taunts and barbs leave little room for doubt that the 33-year-old ties have soured. Since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government on August 5, BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami leaders have differed in private and in public on various issues, including reforms and election timeframe.
BNP has made it known that it wants elections after a reasonable set of reforms. Its longtime ally Jamaat on the other hand has made it clear that it is willing to wait and allow Prof Muhammad Yunus-led interim government more time.
Experts say they have not previously seen such opposing views, that too in public, by the two parties that formed electoral alliance on multiple occasions in the past and even fought side by side to topple Hasina for years.
According to them, the two parties do not need each other anymore after the political changeover, as their “common political rival” Hasina is no longer in the scene. 
BNP leaders say the rift between the two allies surfaced when Jamaat chief Shafiqur Rahman in a statement on August 26 alleged that BNP has already “grabbed 80 percent of the power”.
“They [BNP] don’t even need an election. They have grabbed whatever there is to grab – from footpath to begging business,” Shafiqur had said.

Earlier on August 11, Dhaka City North unit member secretary of Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal, the youth front of BNP, Rabiul Islam Nayan, allegedly led a mob that tried to take control of Islami Bank’s main branch in Motijheel. Jamaat, which allegedly wanted to establish its dominance over the first Shariah-based bank in Bangladesh, was upset by this, according to Jamaat insiders.
The gap between BNP and Jamaat appears to have widened centering also on appointments in key government posts, as both parties seek to solidify their control over various institutions.
BNP leaders say the interim government removed pro-Awami League people from different government positions, educational institutions, banks and insurance companies. Many of these posts have been given to pro-Jamaat men.
The differences became visible soon after Prof Yunus’s address to the nation on August 25, where he did not mention the election timeframe.
In his reaction the next day, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the chief adviser failed to address the election issue.
On the same day, the Jamaat chief said the nation will not accept any political party’s demand for an election at a time when hundreds of people are still lying on hospital beds from injuries sustained during the July uprising.
As if in a direct response, Fakhrul told a press conference at the party chairperson’s Gulshan office on August 28 that those who do not have public support and cannot run government have different thoughts about election. “Those who cannot afford to win are against elections,” he said.
Although both parties are in favour of reforms, BNP wants a reasonable level of reforms to some institutions, while Jamaat supports sustainable reforms, according to sources in the two parties.
Multiple Jamaat leaders said they want to allow the interim government more time for the sake of their own preparations for the election. They also said they are likely to join polls on their own. Before that, they want to “brighten the party image” through extensive social work. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal party matters.
Talking to The Daily Star on August 28, Mirza Fakhrul said Jamaat is no longer their ally and that BNP is making preparations to run in the election on its own.
Saiful Alam Khan, a member of Jamaat’s central executive council, denied that there are any strains in the relations between the two parties.
“The two political parties have their own perspectives and opinions, and they will speak on the basis of their opinions. That does not mean that a tense situation has been created between us,” he told The Daily Star.
BNP and Jamaat became political allies in 1991, when they formed government for the first time after the fall of HM Ershad, an autocrat.
In the 1991 election, BNP won 140 seats out of the 300 and needed 11 more to form government. Jamaat, which bagged 18 seats, extended its unconditional support to BNP.
BNP formed an electoral alliance with Jamaat in 1999, and the two parties went to the polls under a common banner, and eventually formed an alliance government in 2001.
BNP and Jamaat participated in the 2008 election under the four-party alliance banner and lost heavily to Awami League.
From 2013 to 2015, they launched a joint movement against the AL government.
The relations developed some cracks over seat sharing before the 2018 election, when Jamaat was first given 25 seats, which was later revised down to 22 seats.
As Jamaat lost its registration with the Election Commission in 2018, its candidates participated in that election with BNP’s electoral symbol.
In 2022, the two parties officially broke up their alliance, and started a separate yet simultaneous movement against the AL government.
In the July uprising against Hasina’s 15-year rule, both parties lent support and joined the movement, but separately.
Talking to The Daily Star, several mid-ranking BNP leaders said the differences with Jamaat essentially centre around politics of power and policy.
“This is not a conflict; it is rather a difference over beliefs and policies. And this difference is permanent. Jamaat is dreaming of assuming state power and then fulfill its desire,” a BNP leader said, asking not to be named.
Asked about the differences between BNP and Jamaat, Prof Al Masud Hasanuzzaman of government and politics department at Jahangirnagar University said, “It’s obvious. BNP and Jamaat came closer to face Awami League though their ideologies were different. But after the fall of the Awami League government, there is no need for them to stay together.”
According to him, BNP and Jamaat are the main beneficiaries of the student movement that forced Hasina to flee to India.
“Both parties are now busy with their own political calculation. So they are keeping distance for their own interest now,” he said.