NPP: The P's stand for participation and percentage

Locating the headquarters of the National People's Party (NPP) in Purana Paltan proved to be a challenging task. Hardly anyone in the locality had ever heard of it. When I asked them for directions, almost everyone questioned, "Do you mean the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) office?" 

I meandered through the Purana Paltan area for half an hour as if it were a maze, before finally stumbling upon the Sharif Complex in a narrow lane behind the Bijoynagar Water Tank. This 10-storeyed building houses the NPP office on the 5th floor.

Surprisingly, there were no political posters or banners in front of the building, making it harder to believe that there was indeed a political office upstairs. 

As I stepped inside the office, I felt even more disappointed. The auditorium, dirty yet spacious enough to accommodate a few hundred people, was nearly empty with 8-10 leaders and workers scattered around. The caretaker, Delowar Hossain, was busy attending to them. 

After introducing myself as a journalist, I was given VIP treatment and promptly taken to the personal cabin of Sheikh Salauddin Salu, the party chairman. The first thing that caught my attention was not the man himself, but how his room was decorated. 

Because of course, there goes the saying that your home décor and accessories reveal a lot about your personality, and this principle could equally apply to the interiors of a political party office.

More crucially, the party chairman Sheikh Salauddin Salu is focused on enhancing his team's percentage. In the previous two elections NPP participated, it secured 0.1% and 0.4% of total votes, respectively. He said, "Even if we can go beyond 1% this time, it will be a huge boost for us," and that sums up the kind of ambition NPP has for the elections

Frankly speaking, the first impression that I had of the party's personality was a rather confusing one. 

In addition to a desk and chair for the chairman, there were a few more chairs and an almirah. The modest room also featured three frames hanging from the wall. One frame contained the original copy of the NPP's proclamation as a political party, another displayed the portrait of its founder, the late Sheikh Shawkat Hossain Nilu (elder brother of Salu), and the third one showcased a picture of Nilu and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during a courtesy meeting.

The last one took me off guard as I knew that founded in 2007, NPP was part of the 20-party alliance led by the BNP till only a year ago. This led me to wonder if, in addition to breaking away from the BNP alliance, the political ideology of the party had also undergone a transformation and leaned towards the party in power. 

As I initiated the conversation with Salu, it became apparent that their relationship with the Prime Minister goes back a long way. Being part of the same Sheikh lineage in Gopalganj's Tungipara, their ancestors were neighbours.

"Perhaps our political ideologies differ, but I maintain a positive personal relationship with Sheikh Hasina. She regards me as a brother," Salu said.

"More importantly, my father Sheikh Shahadat Hossain shared a close friendship with Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. They studied together from class five to BA. You will find several mentions of my father in 'The Unfinished Memoir'," he proudly added. 

That's not a lie either. But the issue was whether the said friendship was a friendship at all. 

On pages 71-72 of the memoir, Bangabandhu indeed wrote that when he decided to take the BA examination, he stayed for two months with Shahadat who at the time was employed in Howrah's Ultadanga. 

"Sheikh Shahadat Hossain took a two-month leave to assist me with my studies. Unfortunately, he caused a lot of harm to me later in life. However, I never voiced my grievances to him. His home was close to mine," wrote Bangabandhu. 

However, over the years, Salu's family was more inclined towards BNP's politics. His elder brother Nilu served as an advisor to Major Ziaur Rahman's government and remained steadfast in his loyalty to the Zia family for most of his life. To many, he also was "the big leader of a small party."

But things changed in July 2014, when Nilu participated in Hasina's Iftar party in Ganabhaban and was subsequently expelled from his own party. After that, he created a breakaway NPP and led it till his death in 2017. 

According to Salu, his brother's relationship with Khaleda Zia had also begun to deteriorate long before. 

"Firstly, when the then-Indian President Pranab Mukherjee visited Bangladesh in 2013, my brother advised Begum Zia to withdraw the hartals. Additionally, he encouraged her to participate in the 2014 national elections, but she did not heed his advice." 

Finally, earlier this year, Salu's NPP broke away from the BNP-led 20-party alliance and created a new 17-party alliance named Ganatantra Bikash Mancha with a view to restoring the rights of the people to deal with the ongoing crisis in the country.

This led us to discuss why the NPP is so enthusiastic about participating in the upcoming 12th national elections on 7 January 2024.

Despite never winning a seat in a national election, the party has emerged as one of the major participants in the upcoming polls, fielding 122 candidates.

When it first ran for national elections in 2008, its 30 candidates garnered 10,348 votes or 345 on average in the polls. All of them lost and had their security deposits seized. 

In the 2018 elections, it nominated 81 candidates who received a total of 43,330 votes or on average, 535 votes. All of them lost, having had their security deposits seized again. 

But still, win or loss hardly matters to the party. The only thing that matters is the "participatory poll, which is the backbone of a true democracy," according to Salu. "BNP made a grave mistake in 2014 by not participating in the national elections, and it is making the same mistake again this time." 

Interestingly, despite hailing from Tungipara himself, Salu never intended to contest in the Gopalganj-3 constituency (Kotalipara-Tungipara). He has a very logical reasoning behind this decision.

"Certainly, I can't win by contesting against Sheikh Hasina," he admitted. 

Hence, he bought nomination papers for the Thakurgaon-3 constituency and was initially quite optimistic about securing victory. 

But eventually, he cancelled that plan as well because "it won't give a good impression if the party chairman himself loses the elections."

There are, however, some other constituencies like Patuakhali-1, Patuakhali-3, Bagerhat-1, Bagerhat-4, Cox's Bazar-4, Jamalpur-5 and Chuadanga-5 where Salu is confident of the success of the NPP candidates with the Mango symbol. 

More crucially, Salu is focused on enhancing his team's percentage. In the previous two elections NPP participated, it secured 0.1% and 0.4% of total votes, respectively. "Even if we can go beyond 1% this time, it will be a huge boost for us," and that sums up the kind of ambition NPP has for the elections. 

The constitution of NPP focuses on five primary ideologies including upholding the spirit of the Liberation War, Bangladeshi nationalism, religious values, democracy, social progress and economic freedom. 

Salu asserted that one notable distinction between NPP and BNP is the commitment to democracy, "The upcoming elections will not be 100% participatory due to the absence of the BNP. Had they taken part, even if the elections were not free and fair, they would have had a legitimate point to raise and protest."

The party's election manifesto will be announced soon and is expected to prioritise sectors encompassing agriculture, education, healthcare, energy, industry, transportation, youth improvement, women and children, labour policy, NGO, restraint of corruption and terrorism, judicial freedom, foreign policy, national security, ICT, sports and culture, climate and environment, fisheries and livestock, improvement of minorities and Dalits, physically challenged and third gender and the Liberation War and freedom fighters. 

"These are the sectors where we will expect the newly elected government to put more emphasis," Salu said. 

He concluded by stating that although they plan to conduct election campaigns nationwide, they may encounter opposition in constituencies where they have strong contenders.

NPP's praesidium member Md Anisur Rahman said that though they haven't yet started a full-fledged campaign, they will soon begin it. 

Morzina Khan and Zia Zaman Khan, the mother-son duo who will contest in Gaibandha-1 and Gaibandha-2 constituencies respectively, voiced optimism about their victory. 

"We hold sufficient popularity in our constituencies. If the elections are conducted freely and fairly, there is no reason for us to fail this time," said Zia.