"How will this play out in the Feb 2026 general elections?": Tharoor on Jamaat-e-Islami's victory in Dhaka University polls

New Delhi [India], September 11 (ANI): Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday termed the victory of Jamaat-e-Islami's student wing in the Dhaka University polls "a worrying portent of things to come."
In a post on X, the Congress leader, referencing a newspaper report, wrote, "This may have registered as barely a blip on most Indian minds, but it is a worrying portent of things to come."
Tharoor stated that there is an increasing sense of frustration in Bangladesh with both major parties, the (now-banned) Awami League and the Bangladesh National Party.
"Those who wish 'a plague on both your houses' are increasingly turning to the Jamaat-e-Islami, not because these voters are zealots or Islamist fundamentalists, but because the JeI are not tainted by the corruption and misgovernance associated, rightly or wrongly, with the two mainstream parties. How will this play out in the Feb 2026 general elections? Will New Delhi be dealing with a Jamaat majority next door?" he asked.
Bangladeshi news outlet Prothom Alo reported that candidates backed by Islami Chhatra Shibir under the banner of the Oikkoboddho Shikkharthi Jote (United Students' Alliance) have secured nine out of the 15 key posts, including the Vice President (VP), General Secretary (GS), and Assistant General Secretary (AGS).
For the VP post, Shibir leader Abu Shadik Kayem won with 14,042 votes. His closest rival, BNP's student wing leader Abidul Islam Khan, received 5,708 votes.
Independent candidate Shamim Hossain secured 3,883 votes, while Umaama Fatema of the Independent Students' Unity Panel got 3,389 votes.
Abdul Kader from the Anti-Discrimination Students' Union received 1,103 votes, and Tasnim Afroze Emi from the Resistance Council polled only 68 votes.
According to the news outlet, for over 15 years of Awami League rule, Shibir was unable to operate openly on the Dhaka University campus, with suspected activists often subjected to physical assault in residential halls.
Following the fall of the Awami League government in the July mass uprising, Shibir resurfaced publicly in September last year. Within just a year of re-emergence, it has now claimed a sweeping victory in the DUCSU polls. (ANI)