Fire in the heart of BNP’s Noakhali bastion as rebellion tests party discipline

As campaigning gathers pace across Noakhali’s six constituencies, the BNP looks secure in half of them, though, in the other three, open dissent, street protests and rival ambitions have ignited internal battles

In Noakhali, where the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has long drawn strength from loyalty and organisation, the ground is shifting.

Three constituencies remain calm, their campaigns orderly and confident. In three others, however, the party’s internal discipline has frayed, erupting into protests that have spilt onto roads and into public squares.

The unrest has turned candidate selection into a trial of authority -- and transformed what should have been a straightforward contest into a test of survival for the party’s dominance in the district.

Three BNP nominees are widely regarded within the party as comparatively “risk-free”, their candidacies untroubled by visible internal resistance.

In Noakhali-1 -- covering Chatkhil and parts of Sonaimuri -- the party has fielded Joint Secretary General and Bar Association leader AMM Mahbub Uddin Khokon.

Noakhali-3, centred on Begumganj, is being contested by Vice-Chairman Barkat Ullah Bulu, while in Noakhali-4, comprising Sadar and Subarnachar, the party has nominated another Vice-Chairman Md Shahjahan.

The political landscape shifts sharply in the remaining three constituencies -- Noakhali-2, Noakhali-5 and Noakhali-6 -- where the announcement of nominations triggered immediate and sustained unrest. From the outset, disgruntled aspirants and their supporters took to the streets, launching a cycle of protests that has yet to abate.

Torch processions, marches clad in burial shrouds, human chains and road blockades have followed in quick succession, occasionally tipping into violence.

Whether this internal combustion will ultimately snap the thread of destiny in favour of rival parties has become the defining question of Noakhali’s electoral contest.

According to the district election office, the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Andolan Bangladesh have fielded candidates in all six constituencies. The National Citizen Party (NCP) and the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSD are contesting in three seats each.

The BNP leaders insist that the party’s organisational backbone remains intact, while acknowledging that years of election boycotts, alleged manipulation and sustained repression under the Awami League hollowed out its presence at the grassroots.

After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on Aug 5, 2024, the party moved swiftly to regroup. Yet the release of the candidate list has reopened old scars -- creating precisely the kind of opening that rivals, particularly Jamaat, are now seeking to exploit.

FAULT LINES AND FLASHPOINTS

The BNP’s grip on Noakhali looks secure on paper, but beneath the surface, it is grappling with turbulence in the other constituencies where nomination decisions have unsettled longstanding equations and opened space for rivals.

Nowhere is the uncertainty more pronounced than in Noakhali-5, covering Companiganj, Kabirhat and parts of Sadar.

The seat remains inseparable from the legacy of the late BNP heavyweight Moudud Ahmed, whose influence continues to shape local loyalties. That history was thrust back into the spotlight on Dec 23, when his widow, Hasna Maudud, moved to collect nomination papers, reigniting expectations among supporters while deepening unease within the party.

The BNP has already named businessman Muhammad Fakhrul Islam as its candidate, but his path has been fraught from the outset.

Supporters of rejected aspirant Bazlul Karim Chowdhury Abed, a party cooperative affairs secretary, have sustained street protests demanding a reversal. Hasna Moudud’s entry has compounded the volatility, with many activists now describing Noakhali-5 as the most unpredictable of the district’s six seats.

Senior BNP leaders have since been deployed to Kabirhat to contain the fallout and press the case for unity. Her electoral pedigree -- having twice won the seat in by-elections after Moudud stepped aside -- has only sharpened the sense of a looming showdown, even as Fakhrul Islam continues to project confidence rooted in his years of loyalty during political repression.

The field here is crowded, with Jamaat, the NCP, Islami Andolan and the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSD all mounting active campaigns.

A similar pattern of internal friction has emerged in Noakhali-6, the island constituency of Hatia. The BNP’s nomination of Mahbubur Rahman Shamim, its Chattogram divisional organising secretary, triggered resistance from former MP Fazlul Azim and local party general secretary Tanvir Uddin, whose followers have kept protests alive.

District leaders have intervened to shore up the official campaign, but the seat has also witnessed the rise of a formidable challenger. NCP nominee Abdul Hannan Masud, propelled into prominence by the July mass uprising and sustained grassroots engagement, has become a focal point of the contest, alongside candidates from Jamaat and Islami Andolan.

In Noakhali-2, encompassing Senbagh and parts of Sonaimuri, unrest has been relentless since the BNP nominated veteran leader and five-time Zainul Abdin Farroque.

Supporters of another senior figure Kazi Mofizur Rahman have protested relentlessly, arguing that years of legal battles and imprisonment were overlooked. Farroque has kept his focus on outreach rather than rebuttal.