Mahi B Chowdhury says regrets participating in 11th national election

Mahi Badruddoza Chowdhury, the spokesperson of Bikalpadhara Bangladesh, popularly known as Mahi B Chowdhury, expressed regret about the decision to participate in the 11th national parliament election in 2018.

He declared fresh nine points of Bikalpadhara Bangladesh in a bid to start a new dimension of the party focusing on the youth leadership.

The former lawmaker made these remarks at a press conference at the Baridhara office of Bikalpadhaka Bangladesh on Tuesday afternoon.

Mahi is the son of Bangladesh’s former president and distinguished physician AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury.

At the press conference, Mahi said that before the death, his father discussed the vision and mission of Bikalpadhara with him and the party’s founding general secretary, Major (retd) Abdul Mannan, and gave them the nine points to restart the party in a new shape.

Showcasing the nine points, Mahi said that every 20 years, Bikalpadhara Bangladesh will revamp its organogram and mission to bring the new generation to the party’s leading position.

“Now, we aim for the millennial or Generation Y to lead the party from the leading position. Our senior leaders and I will act in the advisory role of the party,” Mahi added.

In the nine points, Mahi briefly illustrated their party’s policy, vision, and mission to make Bikalpadhara a real alternative political platform for the country.

After the press briefing while talking with Dhaka Tribune, Mahi said: “A large number of our party supporters made remarkable contributions in the recent July mass uprising; most of them are from private universities and some major public universities, and now they will lead our party to make Bikalpadhara more vibrant.”

When asked, Mahi said: “We have welcomed the interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus and have been communicating with the government from our side. But still, it’s a one-sided communication; we have not got any communication from the interim government so far, but if they want, we are always ready to assist them.”

He also said: “Some people tried to label us as the collaborator of Awami League as like as the Jatiya Party because we have participated in the 11th parliament election during the Sheikh Hasina regime, but the reality is Jatiya Party, and we are not the same.”

“We are admitting that our decision to participate in the 11th parliament election was wrong, and the people misled us because of that action. But the reality is at that time, we had no option to participate in the election to save our party.”

“After the election, we realized that supporting Awami League was not possible for us, so we started to keep a distance from Awami League, and from 2018 to 2024, we had not sat with Awami League for a single time from that realization,” Mahi further continued, who started his political career with BNP and later joined in the Bikalpadhara Bangladesh.

When asked about participating in the 12th parliament election in 2024, Mahi said: “Participating in the 2024 elections was the first step in correcting our wrong decisions in 2018. In that election, every political party had a negotiation with Awami League except our party. We have participated in that election to come back into politics independently. We firmly believe that the defeat in 2024 was more prestigious for us than the win in the 2018 election.”

Mahi believes that Bikalpadhara's new dimension, which they are terming “Generation 2”, will be a youth-led party. Generation Y professionals and youth will lead the party in the upcoming days.

“The nine-point was the last dream of our party’s founding President AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, and we believe that our next generation will uphold this ideology to revamp the party from 2025 to 2045,” Mahi added.

At the press conference, the youths from various quarters who are now acting as the central leaders of the party were present.