Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami is preparing to take part in the upcoming 11th national election even after losing its registration with the Election Commission on Sunday.
The party that opposed the independence of Bangladesh during the Liberation War of 1971 has started filing independent candidates under the umbrella of the BNP-led alliance.
Senior Jamaat leaders said they are working to finalize the candidates by the end of this week ahead of the polls, which are scheduled for the end of this year.
Sources said Jamaat is targeting 40 seats and the final list of candidates would be submitted shortly to BNP high-ups including Tarique Rahman.
“The symbol is not a concern for Jamaat candidates as it is in the alliance and can file independent candidates,” its central working committee member Motiur Rahman Akond said.
Akond welcomed the recent formation of the new political platform Jatiya Oikya Front, saying all the political parties, right groups and civil society members should stand against ruling Awami League and their alliance together.
“Everyone should focus on free, fair and credible election and Jatiya Oikya Front is also working on the same issue,” he said.
“Ideologically we are not like-minded with many other parties of the newly formed coalition, but our movement against the government is same.
“The seven point demands of Jatiya Oikya Front - including the resignation of the government, the dissolution of parliament and the formation of a polls-time neutral government - is also the demand of the Islamist party.”
A member of the party’s central executive committee, Ehsanul Mahbub Zubair, said they are planning for the movement and simultaneously for the election as well.
Sources in Jamaat-e-Islami said their party supports Jatiya Oikya Front without the party banner but will not give way to the new platform in their targeted constitutional seats.
The party may consider compromising a few seats for BNP but no other platform, they said.
Dr Kamal Hossain, who is leading Jatiya Oikya Front, said the coalition is not with Jamaat as the unity was forged with BNP and not with its alliance.
“Oikya Front should not be seen in any way as supporting the Jamaat-e-Islami,” he said.
BNP Standing Committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and Nazrul Islam Khan said the newly formed unity and the 20-party alliance “are different things”.
Jamaat would remain a part of the 20-party alliance, they said.