Nearly two years after the July 2024 uprising called for an end to partisan politics in Dhaka University's residential halls, mainstream student organizations have quietly re-established their presence, raising fresh questions over whether the movement's pledge to depoliticize campus has faded.
Although no group has regained the overwhelming dominance once enjoyed by the now-banned Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), most major student organizations have formed hall committees or alternative structures to maintain their influence.
The development marks a departure from the post-uprising consensus, when students demanded an end to party-affiliated politics in residential halls to prevent any single group from exercising prolonged control.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party's student wing, Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), became the first major organization to formally return to hall-based politics.
On August 8, 2025, the Dhaka University unit dissolved its previous hall committees and announced new convening committees for all 18 residential halls, appointing 593 students to various posts.
When asked DU Chhatra Dal General Secretary Nahiduzzaman Shipon said the organization had no intention of reviving the coercive politics associated with the Chhatra League.
"Students demanded an end to the politics of fear and terror imposed by the Chhatra League," he told Dhaka Tribune on Saturday.
He claimed Chhatra Dal does not engage in such practices, while alleging that Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir has established influence in the halls by operating under the guise of ordinary students.
The National Citizen Party's student wing, Jatiya Chhatra Shakti, announced partial committees in six residential halls on May 14 this year, drawing criticism because many of its leaders had previously opposed hall-based politics.
DU Chhatra Shakti President Tahmid Al Muddasir Chowdhury defended the move, saying the committees were formed to prevent any single organization from filling a power vacuum. "We still believe student politics needs reform after July," he said.
"We even feel guilty that we could not achieve what we had hoped," he added.
Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir, now the strongest force in recent campus elections, maintains that it has no hall committees.
However, leaders of other student organizations allege that Shibir ‘hiddenly’ operates activities at the hall level.
Bijoy Ekattor Hall Student Union Vice-President Ashik Billah, a Shibir leader, denied the allegation. He said university committee leaders residing in the halls coordinate activities when necessary, while temporary teams are formed for specific programmes instead of maintaining permanent hall committees.
Bangladesh Chhatra Union (a faction) was the first organization to announce a hall committee after the July uprising, forming one at Jagannath Hall in May last year. It has since established committees in the Faculties of Arts, Social Sciences and Fine Arts.
DU unit General Secretary Muhammad Mustakim said the decision came after observing that other organizations continued political activities in the halls despite publicly opposing hall-based politics.
"Our committee has never interfered with the rights of general students," he said.
Leaders of the July uprising described the return of party-affiliated politics as a failure to build a post-uprising consensus.
Umama Fatema, a key organizer of the July uprising and an independent vice-president candidate in 2025 Dhaka University Central Students' Union (DUCSU) election told the Dhaka Tribune on Saturday, "Everyone has formed committees to extend their own dominance over campus, each in their own sphere,"
“No consensus emerged after July,” she said.
Abdul Kader, who announced the movement's nine-point demands and later led the now-dissolved Bangladesh Gonotantrik Chhatra Shakti, said student leaders had planned to draft a charter outlining the future of campus politics.
"Student politics will continue. The question is whether it should exist in residential halls and, if so, under what rules," he said.
Kader also alleged that although Shibir initially supported keeping party politics out of residential halls, it later changed its position during discussions with the university administration ahead of the 2025 DUCSU election.
The issue resurfaced on the night Chhatra Dal announced its hall committees in August last year, when hundreds of students demonstrated outside the vice-chancellor's residence demanding a complete ban on hall politics.
Following the protest, then Proctor Saifuddin Ahmed announced a ban on both "open and covert" political activities inside residential halls.
When asked, the current Vice-Chancellor Dr A B M Obaidul Islam told Dhaka Tribune on Saturday that he doesn't have any such statement, document, or paper regarding student politics being banned.
“This matter of banning student politics — if it doesn't come from the government, then even if I want to, or we want to, we're not operating in a situation where we can just implement something like that on our own,” he added.
When asked if the current student administration has any plans to interfere with student politics in dormitories, he said, “No, we don't have any such plan right now. If that kind of situation arises, we'll see then."
