Six seats, big goals: What’s next for Bangladesh’s student-led NCP party?

From leading historic uprising to being junior partner in opposition alliance – the nascent party looks for a foothold.

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Ruhul Amin had long been disillusioned with Bangladesh’s established political parties and had waited for a credible third force.

When student leaders behind a 2024 uprising – which ousted longtime leader Sheikh Hasina – formed the National Citizen Party (NCP), Amin, who is in his early 30s, felt he had finally found a party he could vote for – and call his own.

The NCP was formally launched in February 2025. Its leaders claimed broad public backing and strong electoral prospects, even hinting at forming a future government.

But reality soon set in. Despite the momentum and widespread support the student leaders enjoyed during the uprising, the NCP could not organise itself into a grassroots organisation capable enough for an electoral race to the parliament on its own. Opinion polls in the lead-up to the February 12 election suggested the party’s support hovered in low single digits.

Eventually, the NCP struck a deal with the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party as a junior coalition partner, contesting just 30 of the 300 parliamentary seats and winning six. A coalition led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) swept the polls, winning a landslide 212 seats, while the Jamaat-led alliance secured 77.