Jatiya Chhatrashakti forms central and DU committees

Bangla Press Desk:   The newly formed student organisation “Jatiya Chhatrashakti,” reorganised from the Bangladesh Democratic Students' Council (Bagchas), has formed its new central and Dhaka University (DU) branch committees.

The announcement came through a press release signed by the organisation’s General Secretary Abu Baker Majumder on Friday (31 October).

According to the statement, Zahid Ahsan, the former member secretary of Bagchas, has been appointed as the president of the central committee, while Abu Baker Majumder, Bagchas’s former convener, will serve as the general secretary.

The committee also includes Abu Touhid Md Siam as organising secretary for the northern region and Mahir Alam for the southern region. The organisation said it would release the full list of central committee members within the next seven working days.

In a separate notice, the organisation approved the first Dhaka University branch committee, appointing Tahmid Al Muddassir Chowdhury as president, Al Amin Sarkar as general secretary, and Md Saifullah as organising secretary.

However, Abdul Kader, the former convener of Bagchas DU branch and a DUCSU vice-president candidate, has been excluded from the new organisation’s lineup as of now.

Organisational sources said Tahmid Al Muddassir Chowdhury had contested for the post of assistant general secretary in the DUCSU elections as an independent, after failing to secure a place in the Bagchas panel.

His strong performance in DUCSU polls, reportedly receiving more votes than the Bagchas nominated candidate, influenced his appointment as the DU unit president of the newly formed Chhatrashakti.

Abu Baker Majumder, the central general secretary, said the Dhaka University committee of Jatiya Chhatrashakti has also been instructed to announce its full committee within the next seven working days.

Jatiya Chhatrashakti, like its predecessor Bagchas, also claims to be non-partisan, unlike other student organisations like Chhatra Dal and Chhatra Shibir, but treats NCP as its “ideological forerunner.”

While Chhatra Dal and Chhatra Shibir are affiliated student fronts of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami respectively, Chhatrashakti has no direct links to NCP and is in no way influenced by the NCP leadership, the new organization’s policymakers said earlier.

Chhatrashakti was officially launched at Abu Sayed Convention Centre in Shahbagh on 23 October. At the same event, Bagchas leaders announced the dissolution of the organization only about eight months after its inception, in the wake of the drubbing it suffered in four recent public university student union elections.

The reorganised student body is evidently styled after “Gonotantrik Chhatrashakti,” believed to be the ideological backbone of NCP. Gonotantrik Chhatrashakti was established at Dhaka University in October 2023. Many of its front-row leaders led the July Uprising and are now key figures in NCP.

It was dissolved last year after its key members successfully led the pivotal July-August anti-fascist uprising.

BP/SP