Trends of 13th parliamentary election campaign and what lies ahead
“The starting point of any discussion used to be centre-left but nowadays this has shifted to centre-right. From there it goes further right.” Ramon Magsaysay award winning journalist Ravish Kumar said this in one of his “Prime Time” shows back in his days at NDTV, an Indian television channel. He was explaining the context that emerged regarding public debates and discussion on any issue in India following the government formed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with Narendra Modi at the helm.
The trend of election campaigns by a substantial number of candidates in the recently concluded parliamentary elections in Bangladesh reminded me of this observation of Ravish Kumar regarding the Indian society as a whole.
A number of political analysts and pundits were constantly pointing out the fact that following the ouster of the government of the Bangladesh Awami League, led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, the social fabric was taking a rightist turn. Alongside the local media reports on various such incidents, international media like Guardian, Washington Post, New York Times also carried news reports on this rising trend.
Initially the symptoms appeared slowly but then it gained pace to such an extent that trolls appeared on social media, especially Facebook, against the very women, who took to the streets boldly, braving many obstacles, in the mass uprising in July-August of 2024 that toppled the government of Sheikh Hasina. The trolls became so vitriolic that many women, who thought about active participation in political activities, went back to their position of maintaining a low profile.
This trend gained a major momentum when a large number of candidates of Islami Chhatra Shibir, student organisation of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, won in the student union elections at large public universities like Dhaka University, Rajshahi University, Jahangirnagar University, Chittagong University and Jagannath University.
Proliferation of this rightist trend in politics was acknowledged by none other than Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami’s nayeb-e-ameer Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher. In a remarks after submitting his nomination papers as the Jamaat-e-Islami candidate in the 13th parliamentary elections for the Cumilla-11 (Chauddagram) constituency to the assistant returning officer and the Chauddagram Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) on 29 December 2025, he said, “Three distinct features of this election are becoming apparent. First, the Awami League is absent from this election. Second, the BNP has been left alone. Third, what may be described as right-wing parties, along with all those who stood with the July 2024 mass uprising, are now united.” (BNP becomes isolated in this election: Jamaat nayeb-e-ameer; Prothom Alo English, 29 December 2025)
Stating that this has never happened in the country before, the Jamaat leader further said, “Therefore, we can say that on one side there are a handful of people and one or two parties; on the other side stands the whole of Bangladesh. A truly exceptional election is taking place.”
Afterwards, several leaders of Jamaat in their election campaigns equated the voting for their party and a certain kind of guarantee of entering the haven in later life. Political analysts published opinions on this too. But use of such religious rhetoric for seeking votes was not limited to Jamaat or a few other Islamic parties only. Independent candidates also used the strategy. Audios of waaz (Islamic sermons) were played in loudspeakers for hours at their election offices, with requests for people to vote for them. Apparently they had no reason to do so as they were not known for their involvement with doing politics along religious frames.
During a discussion with DW Bangla on 4 February 2026, writer and researcher Altaf Parvez pointed out such proliferation of the use of religious rhetoric in seeking votes. He said, “Use of religious rhetoric has reached an unprecedented height this year. Not only in slogans and speeches, several parties presented their election manifestos, publicity, and statements enshrouding in religious terms. That means, this time around, religion has come to a practical ground and it’s becoming entrenched into the political system of Bangladesh. More importantly, it seems, it is (the use of religion) is becoming a structural reality of politics in Bangladesh.”
He further said, “There has not been much discussion on the economy and the parties are not much interested in anti-discrimination issues, rather they are interested in religious rhetoric.”
People of different religions and beliefs live in a nation state. Those people take part in elections to choose their representatives who would work to solve their practical problems and day to day issues like, jobs, their income deficiency, economic disparity, ensuring better food, upgrading education system to meet the growing need, degradation of environment and so on. They do not elect leaders who would enforce a certain lifestyle, dress pattern, or to promote ways to ensure haven in the afterlife. Politics is all about living and ways to improve that.
When the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami or any other Islamic party speaks about guaranteeing heaven if they are voted, it is readily understood because they do politics using religious rhetoric, but why would an independent candidate play audios of waaz in his electioneering?
This question brings us back to the remarks of Ravish Kumar I mentioned at the beginning of this article. “The starting point of any discussion used to be centre-left but nowadays this has shifted to centre-right. From there it goes further right.”
The question is to what height will this rightist fervour reach in the coming days? Probably we will have to watch the performance of the incumbent government of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the approaches of the Bangladesh Awami League, whose activity is currently banned, and wait for the time being for an answer to this.