Shamima Rita

The youth-led National Citizen Party is considering transforming its electoral alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami into a political one.

Amid doubts over its political future and alliance choices, the youth-led National Citizen Party (NCP) has made an eye-catching debut, winning six seats in its first parliamentary election.

Around 11:30am on Thursday, National Citizen Party (NCP) Dhaka-20 candidate Nabila Tasnid set out on her campaign in Jhilkutia village of Dhamrai, about 40 kilometres northwest of the capital city.

Multiple candidates remain in constituencies allocated to NCP under seat-sharing deal

After weeks of drama, the Jamaat-e-Islami-led electoral alliance is now set to redistribute seats following the exit of Islami Andolan Bangladesh, ahead of the start of campaigning for the 13th parliamentary election.

Leaders, who recently resigned from NCP in protest against the party’s alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami, are standing firm on their decision, rejecting recent overtures from the party leadership to bring them back into the fold.

After nearly three months of talks, alliance leaders say they are now cautiously optimistic about reaching an understanding across all 300 constituencies.

Despite submitting nomination papers, the party remains short of election-ready structures, with crucial tasks, such as strategy-setting and manifesto drafting, either stalled or unfinished.