The Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) has secured victory in the Bhola-1 (Sadar) constituency in the Barisal division during Bangladesh’s recent parliamentary elections, a result that initially caused confusion because the party shares the same acronym as India’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Despite similarities in name, the winning party is unrelated to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP in India, a distinction that quickly became necessary after social media users mistakenly linked the result to Indian politics.
The Bangladesh Jatiya Party is a smaller political organisation and an ally of Tarique Rahman’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which achieved a sweeping victory in the elections by winning 209 seats and returning to power after roughly two decades. Together with its allies, including the Bangladesh Jatiya Party, the BNP-led alliance increased its combined tally to 212 seats in parliament.
The Bangladesh Jatiya Party secured one parliamentary seat, with its chairman Andaleeve Rahman Partho winning the Bhola-1 constituency for the second time. Partho achieved victory by a margin of nearly 30,000 votes, defeating Jamaat-e-Islami candidate Nazrul Islam. Official election figures showed Partho receiving 105,543 votes, while his opponent secured 75,337 votes.
Andaleeve Rahman Partho is considered one of the relatively younger figures in Bangladesh’s political landscape. Born on April 20, 1974, he first gained national attention in 2008 when he won the same constituency, becoming one of the youngest opposition leaders and members of parliament at the time. His political background is closely linked to his family’s legacy. His father, Naziur Rahaman Manzur, was a freedom fighter during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War and later served as a government minister as well as mayor of Dhaka. Manzur founded the Bangladesh Jatiya Party in 2001 after breaking away from the Jatiya Party.
Partho grew up in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi area and later travelled to London to pursue a law degree. Following his father’s death in 2008, he assumed leadership of the Bangladesh Jatiya Party and has since remained its central political figure.
During the election campaign, held in the aftermath of Sheikh Hasina’s removal from power, Partho outlined several development-focused promises for his constituency. Among his proposals were plans to transform Bhola into a modern and well-developed urban centre, construct a bridge linking Bhola and Barishal, establish a medical college, and expand household gas connections to improve living standards for residents.
While the Bangladesh Jatiya Party’s electoral success was limited to a single seat, its alliance with the BNP places it within the governing coalition, giving it a role in the new political arrangement emerging after the elections. Whether the party will be able to translate its campaign pledges into tangible development projects remains to be seen as the new government begins its tenure.
