List of political parties in Bangladesh

This article lists political parties in People's Republic of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has a fading two-party system, which means that there are two dominant political parties, with extreme difficulty for anybody to achieve electoral success under the banner of another party.

However, though the center-left Awami League (AL) and center-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) dominated Bangladesh politics for a long time, currently both are heading coalitions of like-minded parties with the AL leading the secular and liberal elements while BNP is rallying the right-of-centre parties.

Currently in the Parliament

These are all of the political parties that holds at least a seat in the Bangladeshi Parliament

Alliances

Grand Alliance

The Grand Alliance (মহাজোট) also known as the 14 Party Alliance is a coalition government in Bangladesh that formed in 2008 and consisted of the Bangladesh Awami League, Jatiya Party, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal- JASAD, Workers Party and nine other parties.

The Liberal Democratic Party left the Grand Alliance before the election and contested independently. It joined the 18 Party Alliance in 2012.

Left Democratic Alliance

The Left Democratic Alliance is an alliance of 8 Leftist Political parties including Communist Party of Bangladesh, Basad, Revolutionary Workers Party of Bangladesh, United Communist League Of Bangladesh, Ganatantrik Biplobi Party, Bam Gonotantrik Andolon and Gonoshonghoti Andolon.

Major parties

Bangladesh Awami League

}; translated from English: Bangladesh People's League) is one of the two largest political parties of Bangladesh. It is the country's current governing party, after winning a majority in heavily criticized 2014 parliamentary elections where the majority of seats were uncontested. The All Pakistan Awami Muslim League was founded in Dhaka, the capital of the Pakistani province of East Bengal, in 1949 by Bengali nationalists Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, Yar Mohammad Khan, Shamsul Huq, and later Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. In 1953, the party's council meeting voted to drop the word "Muslim" from its name in order to give it a more secular outlook, owing to the need to include the province's large Hindu population in Pakistani politics. Amongst the leaders of the Awami League, five have become the President of Bangladesh, four have become the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and one became the Prime Minister of Pakistan. His daughter and also the incumbent Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, has headed the party since 1981.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party

}, transliterated:
''Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Dôl''), often abbreviated as BNP was founded on 1 September 1978 by Bangladeshi President Ziaur Rahman, politician and physician A. Q. M. Badruddoza Chowdhury, human rights activist and lawyer Moudud Ahmed and leftist politician Mashiur Rahman as the key people. BNP has won the second, fifth, sixth and eighth national elections and two presidential elections, in 1978 and 1981 respectively. The party also holds the record of being the largest opposition in the history of parliamentary elections of the country with 116 seats in the seventh national election of 1996.
The party does not have any representation in the parliament after its boycott of the national election of 2014 which the party had termed a scandalous farce and was marked by a very low turnout.

Jatiya Party (Ershad)

Registered parties

These are all the parties that are currently registered under Election Commission.

Regional parties

* Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti - PCJSS
* United People's Democratic Front - UPDF
* UPDF Democratic

Unregistered parties

* Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami
* Nagorik Oikya
* Bangalee Janatatantrik Party (BJP)
* Hindu Republican Party
* Ganasamhati Andolon
* United National Party
* Maoist Bolshevik Reorganisation Movement of the Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party
* National Movement
* Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party
* Bangladesh Gano Odhikar Parishad
* Amar Bangladesh Party-AB Party
* Noitik Shomaj
* Bangladesh Justice Party
* Bangladesh National Democratic League President: Khandaker Enamul Nasir
* Nation State Movement (NSM), National Chairman: Jatiprodhan Rafiqus Samad Choudhury

See also

* Politics of Bangladesh
* List of political parties by country

References

{{Asia topic, List of political parties in

Bangladesh
Political parties

Political parties
Bangladesh