The Workers Party of Bangladesh ( bn, বাংলাদেশের ওয়ার্কার্স পার্টি) is a

communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. Rashed Khan Menon is the president of the Workers Party of Bangladesh and Anisur Rahman Mollik is the general secretary of the party.

History

WPB was founded in 1980 by the

Bangladesh Communist Party (Leninist) The Bangladesh Communist Party (Leninist) was a communist party in Bangladesh. BCP(L) was founded in Calcutta in the fall of 1971, by several small communist splinter factions. The core of founders of BCP(L) consisted of Kazi Zafar Ahmed, Rashed Kh ...

, Revolutionary Communist League, Majdur Party and another group.

Amal Sen Amal Sen was a Bangladeshi politician. He was the founding president of the Workers Party of Bangladesh. Sen was born in Afra village, Narail on July 19, 1914. His family were zamindars. The ancestral home of his family was located at Bakri village ...

was the founding general secretary. In 1984 the party split in two factions, both using the name WPB. One group was led by Amal Sen and Nazrul Islam. The other was led by the current president of the party,

Rashed Khan Menon Rashed Khan Menon (born 18 May 1943) is a Bangladeshi politician. He is the president of Workers Party of Bangladesh and was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dhaka-8 in the 2008 general election. Menon was re-elected at the 2014 gen ...

. In 1992 they reunited. The party participated in the programs of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports in 2006. In November 2008, the Workers Party protested the removal of a

baul The Baul ( bn, বাউল) are a group of mystic minstrels of mixed elements of Sufism, Vaishnavism and Tantra from Bangladesh and the neighboring Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Barak Valley and Meghalaya. Bauls cons ...

statue by the Roads and Highways Department, and

Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) ( bn, বেসামরিক বিমান চলাচল কর্তৃপক্ষ বাংলাদেশ , translit=Beshamorik Biman Cholachol Kortripoxo Bangladesh) functions as the regula ...

following pressure from Islamists near the

Zia International Airport Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport ( bn, হযরত শাহ্‌জালাল আন্তর্জাতিক বিমানবন্দর, Romanization of Bengali, Romanized: ''Hôzrôt Shahjalal Antôrjatik Bimanbôndôr' ...

. In 2010, the

Haider Akbar Khan Rono Haider Akbar Khan Rono (born 31 August 1942) is a Bangladeshi public leader, theorist and writer. He is a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Bangladesh. He has published 13 books. He has received the Bangla Academy Literary Awar ...

led fraction of the

Workers Party of Bangladesh (reconstituted) The Workers Party of Bangladesh (reconstituted) was a political party in Bangladesh. Haider Akbar Khan Rano was the convenor of the party. Rano had led a group of dissident leaders of the Workers Party of Bangladesh, who had broken away from WPB in ...

merged with the

Communist Party of Bangladesh The Communist Party of Bangladesh ( bn, বাংলাদেশের কমিউনিস্ট পার্টি) is a Marxist–Leninist communist party in Bangladesh. History After the partitioning of India in 1947, during the 2nd ...

. WPB joined the Grand Alliance in 2014, but the party leadership openly questioned the direction of the subsequent 14 Party Alliance after the 2014 election. Rashed Khan Menon was made the Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism in the Sheikh Hasina led cabinet. On 26 May 2016, Workers Party of Bangladesh called for the parliamentary membership of Salim Osman to be cancelled for insulting Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, the principal of Piyar Sattar Latif High School. In the 2018 Bangladesh elections, it contested as part of the Grand Alliance along with the Bangladesh Awami League. Five candidates of the Workers Party used the election symbol of the Awami League, the boat. The candidates were

Fazle Hossain Badsha Fazle Hossain Badsha (born 15 October 1952), is a Bangladeshi politician. He has served as a member of the Jatiyo Sangshad since 2008, representing Rajshahi-2 for the Workers Party of Bangladesh The Workers Party of Bangladesh ( bn, বা ...

from

Rajshahi-2 Rajshahi-2 is a constituency represented in the Jatiya Sangsad (National Parliament) of Bangladesh since 2008 by Fazle Hossain Badsha of the Workers Party of Bangladesh. Boundaries The constituency encompasses Rajshahi City Corporation. Hist ...

Mustafa Lutfullah Mustafa Lutfullah (born 15 December 1961), is a Bangladeshi politician. He has served as a member of the Jatiyo Sangshad since 2014, representing Satkhira-1 for the Workers Party of Bangladesh The Workers Party of Bangladesh ( bn, বাং ...

from

Satkhira-1 Satkhira-1 is a constituency represented in the Jatiya Sangsad (National Parliament) of Bangladesh since 2014 by Mustafa Lutfullah of the Workers Party of Bangladesh The Workers Party of Bangladesh ( bn, বাংলাদেশের ওয� ...

from

Dhaka-8 Dhaka-8 is a constituency represented in the Jatiya Sangsad (National Parliament) of Bangladesh since 2008 by Rashed Khan Menon of the Workers Party of Bangladesh. Boundaries The constituency encompasses Dhaka South City Corporation wards 8 thr ...

Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.Dalrymple, p. 243 He int ...

from

Barisal-3 Barisal-3 is a constituency represented in the Jatiya Sangsad (National Parliament) of Bangladesh since 2019 by Golam Kibria Tipu of the Jatiya Party (Ershad). Boundaries The constituency encompasses Babuganj Upazila, Babuganj and Muladi Upazil ...

, and Yeasin Ali from

Thakurgaon-3 Thakurgaon-3 is a constituency represented in the Jatiya Sangsad (National Parliament) of Bangladesh since 2019 by Jahidur Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Boundaries The constituency encompasses Pirganj Upazila, Ranisankail Munici ...

. Three candidates of the party contested using the hammer symbol of the workers party. They were Ahsan Ullah from Comilla-8, Haji Bashirul Alam from

Cox's Bazar-1 Cox's Bazar-1 is a constituency represented in the Jatiya Sangsad (National Parliament) of Bangladesh since 2019 by Jafar Alam of the Awami League. Boundaries The constituency encompasses Chakaria and Pekua upazilas. History The constitu ...

, and Jahirul Haque Tutul from Barisal-2. The Workers Party won four seats in the

Jatiya Sangsad The Jatiya Sangsad ( bn, জাতীয় সংসদ, lit=National Parliament, translit=Jatiyô Sôngsôd), often referred to simply as the ''Sangsad'' or JS and also known as the House of the Nation, is the supreme legislative body of ...

in the

2018 Bangladeshi general election General elections were held in Bangladesh on 30 December 2018 to elect 300 directly-elected members of the Jatiya Sangsad. The result was a landslide victory for the Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina. According to political scientist Ali Riaz, ...

. Lutfun Nesa Khan was elected from the reserved women's seat from the Workers Party. The winners were

from Rajshahi-2, Mustafa Lutfullah from Satkhira-1, and Rashed Khan Menon from Dhaka-8. The Awami League did not include them in the new cabinet which only had Awami League politiicians. In February 2021, the Workers Party criticised Awami League for election policy and for not taking a hardline against religion based political parties. In December the party asked the government to send former Prime Minister

Khaleda Zia Khaleda Zia (; born Khaleda Khanam Putul in 1945) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from March 1991 to March 1996, and again from June 2001 to October 2006. She was the first female prime minister of Ba ...

abroad for medical treatment.

References

{{Bangladeshi political parties 1980 establishments in Bangladesh Anti-revisionist organizations Stalinist parties Maoist parties Communist parties in Bangladesh International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (International Newsletter) Political parties established in 1980 Political parties in Bangladesh Maoist organisations in Bangladesh International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties

History

See also

References