Samantha Sharmin resigns from NCP

Samantha Sharmin, joint convener of the National Citizen Party (NCP), has resigned from the party less than two weeks after responsibilities were redistributed within its central committee.

She announced her resignation in a Facebook post at around 6.45pm on Thursday (5 November), outlining her reasons in a lengthy statement.

Asked about the decision, Samantha told the media: “I have just resigned. I have explained everything in detail on Facebook.”

At the beginning of her post, she addressed the NCP’s alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami. Samantha said she had taken a different position on the question of forming an alliance nearly a year ago. In her view, Jamaat-e-Islami was not a suitable ally, either on ideological or strategic grounds. She had also warned that an alliance with the party would come at a heavy cost for the NCP.

Over the past 11 months, she wrote, she had repeatedly submitted written complaints and proposals at different levels of the party whenever opportunities arose, raising concerns about the NCP’s past actions and its future course. She had also taken part in discussions, debates and exchanges of views. In her words, trying to steer the party away from what she considered the wrong path was her political responsibility.

She said she had not contested the 13th parliamentary election, held on 12 February, because of the alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami.

In her resignation post, Samantha said she had tried to bring the NCP back on course by presenting her ideological position through legitimate party forums and in a reasoned manner, despite disagreements with the party’s adopted policies. But she was now bringing nearly a year of efforts to an end. In her assessment, the NCP could no longer remain genuinely committed to the values on which it was founded.

She also questioned the party’s political future. The NCP could adopt different political positions, she wrote, and might even decide to leave its alliance with Jamaat. But she remained doubtful that it could build an identity, a political vision and a programme of its own outside the old political tradition.

According to Samantha, political parties belonging to the old system would never help establish a new state order; rather, they would stand in its way.

She acknowledged that she could perhaps have waited for a more appropriate moment to resign. Had she stepped down in response to a particular decision or action, the reasons might have been easier to assess. But, she argued, waiting any longer would serve no purpose.

Samantha Sharmin was a senior joint convener of the NCP’s first central committee, formed largely of leading figures from the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement. The 217-member committee was announced on 2 March 2025, a day after the party formally emerged as a new political platform.

Nearly 21 months after its formation, the NCP reconstituted its central committee on 23 October. In the new committee, Samantha was given the role of joint convener. She announced her resignation less than two weeks later.