Student protesters in Bangladesh who led a revolt that topped former leader Sheikh Hasina last year are set to form a new political party, challenging the country’s entrenched political duopoly.
Students Against Discrimination, which was formed last summer to oppose government job quotas before leading a broader uprising against Sheikh Hasina’s regime, planned to launch the new “National Citizen party” on Friday, spokesperson Sarwar Tusher told the Financial Times.
Preparations had been under way for months, members of the nascent party said.
Nahid Islam, a prominent student leader, who will lead the party after resigning from his position as an adviser to Muhammad Yunus’s government on Tuesday, trumpeted the event as “the rise of a new political force”.
Politics in Bangladesh have for decades been dominated by Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League and the rival Bangladesh Nationalist party, which are led by dynasties that trace their legitimacy to Bangladesh’s 1971 independence and have traded political control of the country for decades, often violently.
The students say they want to break this deadlock by using an election expected within the next year as a prelude for drafting a new basic law to govern Bangladesh.
“We propose that the next election should be for a constitutional assembly tasked with drafting a new democratic constitution,” Tusher said. “This is the foundation of our political agenda moving forward.”
Yunus, who took over in August after Sheikh Hasina fled the country, has vowed to hold an election by March 2026. His cabinet, which includes student advisers, is drawing up reforms of the judiciary, police and other institutions that he claims were captured by what he has called the “fascist” Awami League.
The 84-year-old Nobel laureate has ruled out running for office himself.
Bangladesh lacks reliable opinion polling, making it difficult to gauge the level of popular support for the student force, and it will lack the established party machinery of the BNP and Awami League.
Analysts said the coming months would provide a test of whether the student movement can sustain its grassroots momentum amid a volatile security situation and fragile economic backdrop.
“We are seeing a new political force,” said Mubashar Hasan, a postdoctoral research fellow at University of Oslo. “Even if they do not win seats, they will influence public discussion for years to come.”
Some Bangladeshis, including Awami League supporters in exile or in hiding, have raised concerns about Yunus’s student allies, accusing them of using mob tactics against their adversaries and being soft on Islamist extremism.
Earlier this month, a group of protesters vandalised and burned a museum devoted to Sheikh Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who is regarded as the father of Bangladesh’s independence.
The government of India, where Sheikh Hasina has been sheltering since fleeing in August, condemned the incident.
“The expectation from the new political party is that inclusivity should go beyond rhetoric — it must be genuine and not just tokenism,” said Prapti Taposhi, a 25-year-old university student.
“After six months of chasing populism, my hope is that they will now truly work for all citizens of Bangladesh, with a specific focus on uplifting marginalised and indigenous communities, and women.”