The seat-sharing deal that was meant to showcase unity within Jamaat-e-Islami’s 10-party electoral bloc is instead exposing deep cracks at the party’s grassroots, with anger, resistance and open defiance surfacing in several constituencies.
What the leadership hails as a strategic compromise for the “greater good” is being seen by many local leaders and activists as a betrayal of months of hard political labour.
At the heart of the turmoil is the 10-party seat agreement finalised on January 15, reached without the Islamic Andolan Bangladesh. While Jamaat remains the dominant force in the alliance on paper, the decision to withdraw candidates from constituencies where the party enjoys strong local footing has triggered a wave of dissatisfaction that the leadership is struggling to contain.
Numbers look strong, mood does not
According to alliance sources, Jamaat-e-Islami will contest 215 seats, far more than any of its partners.
The remaining seats have been allocated to the National Citizen Party (NCP) with 30, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis 23, Khelafat Majlis 13, LDP seven, AB Party four, Nezami Islam Party three, Bangladesh Development Party two and Khelafat Andolon one.
But the arithmetic has done little to reassure Jamaat’s grassroots.
In many of the seats it has vacated, activists argue that Jamaat candidates were better known, better organised and more competitive than those being accommodated under the alliance formula.
For them, the deal has not strengthened unity; it has diluted local momentum.
Jamaat’s central leadership insists the party has made the biggest sacrifice to hold the bloc together and to push what it calls a “one ballot box” strategy.
At the field level, however, the narrative is very different. Activists say they are being asked to step aside after investing their own money, time and credibility in building support.
From frustration to defiance
The backlash has moved beyond private grumbling. Since the agreement was sealed, Jamaat and Islami Chhatra Shibir supporters have been openly criticising candidate selection on social media, trading barbs that reflect a deeper organisational unease.
In Moulvibazar-3, dissent spilled onto the streets. Jamaat’s nominated candidate Abdul Mannan was effectively confined to his home in Dattagram village of Rajnagar upazila on Tuesday as local residents and supporters gathered to stop him from withdrawing his nomination.
His son, Dr Tanvir, confirmed the incident, stressing that it was driven by local sentiment rather than party instruction. “My father has worked with the people here for a long time. Ordinary residents and his supporters came from the morning to prevent him from withdrawing,” he said. “There are no senior Jamaat leaders here. These are local people who believe he should stay in the race.”
The message was blunt: the grassroots are no longer willing to quietly accept decisions handed down from the centre.
Lakshmipur signals wider trouble
A similar fault line has opened in Lakshmipur-1 (Ramganj), where Jamaat-Shibir activists say their candidate, Nazmul Hossain Patwari, enjoys strong local support. They are furious at the prospect of the seat going to an NCP candidate, Mahbub Alam, whom they claim has little presence in the area.
Sarafat Hossain Shahid, amir of Kanchanpur Union unit Jamaat in Ramganj upazila, did not hide his frustration. “We have been working relentlessly in this constituency for a year. No one knows the NCP candidate here,” he told Jago News. “That is why the decision of the 10-party alliance must be reconsidered.”
According to him, the issue has already reached the party’s central election management committee and the Jamaat amir, underscoring how local anger is now pushing upwards.
Leadership plays down the storm
Jamaat’s top leadership is trying to project calm, describing the unrest as emotional but temporary.
A member of the party’s executive council said candidates had been warned in advance that compromises could be made in the national interest.
“Our candidates have worked extremely hard at the field level. Naturally, there will be frustration,” he said. “But Jamaat-e-Islami is a disciplined organisation. Central decisions must be followed.”
Ahsanul Mahboob Zubair, head of Jamaat’s central publicity and media department, framed the backlash as the cost of political strategy.
“We wanted to keep all the forces of the July uprising together,” he said. “That required sacrifices in places our activists find difficult to accept. They are spending their own money and labour, so their pain is real.”
He expressed confidence that discipline would ultimately prevail. “This does not mean our leaders and activists will reject the party’s decision. In the larger interest, they will stand by it,” he said.
Unity under pressure
Yet the scenes unfolding in Moulvibazar and Lakshmipur suggest the challenge runs deeper than momentary anger. The leadership’s authority is being tested by a base that feels sidelined, while the alliance’s promise of unity is colliding with local political realities.
For Jamaat-e-Islami, the risk is clear. A deal designed to consolidate opposition strength may end up weakening its own machinery on the ground. As the election draws closer, the party’s ability to translate central strategy into disciplined grassroots action could determine whether the 11-party bloc holds together or begins to fracture from within.