Adviser Asif Mahmud to be voter of Dhaka-10 seat on basis of understanding

Local government, rural development and cooperatives adviser Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain is becoming a voter in the Dhaka-10 parliamentary constituency, following discussions over seat-sharing.
Asif Mahmud, former coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, will go to the Dhanmondi thana election office in the afternoon today, Sunday, to submit his application to become a voter in the constituency.

In a message sent in the morning by the public relations officer of the local government ministry, it was stated that the adviser Asif Mahmud will be present at the Dhanmondi thana election office at 3:00pm. He will become a voter under the Dhanmondi thana area.

The Dhaka-10 constituency comprises the Dhanmondi, New Market, Kalabagan, and Hazaribagh thanas. BNP has not yet announced a candidate for this seat. However, Jamaat-e-Islami has announced Supreme Court lawyer Jashim Uddin Sarkar as its candidate there.

Previously, Asif Mahmud had been a voter in the Cumilla-3 constituency, comprising Muradnagar upazila. There had also been talk that he might contest from that seat. Recently, there were speculations that if a seat-sharing arrangement was reached with BNP, he might resign from the government and contest the election from Dhaka-10. Since BNP has not yet named a candidate here, the speculations became stronger. Now, with Asif Mahmud moving to become a voter of this constituency, the possibility appears more concrete.

Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain was one of the frontline coordinators of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, the platform that led the July mass uprising. During the movement, he announced the “complete shutdown” programme. He was also the one who posted on Facebook advancing the final phase of the uprising from 6 August to 5 August. Altogether, he emerged as one of the key figures of the July uprising. After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, he was appointed to the advisory council of the interim government formed on 8 August last year. Asif Mahmud is originally from Cumilla.

He enrolled in the Linguistics Department of Dhaka University in the 2017–18 academic year and completed his undergraduate degree there. From the beginning of his student life, he was involved in the politics of Chhatra Odhikar Parishad. He was active in various anti-repression campaigns on campus. Later, in 2023, when a faction of the council formed a new student organisation named Gonotantrik Chhatra Shakti, Asif Mahmud was one of the initiators. He served as the convener of the Dhaka University chapter of that organisation. Most of the frontline leaders of the July uprising came from this group.

Alongside his responsibilities in the interim government as adviser to the local government ministry, he also serves as adviser to the youth and sports ministry. Alongside his government duties, he is completing a master’s degree in policy and governance at North South University.