The Bangladesh Democratic Student Council (BAGCHAS) has decided not to field any panel in the upcoming Chittagong University Central Students’ Union (CUCSU) elections, despite the mounting enthusiasm across campus for the first such vote in nearly three decades.
Confirming the decision, CU unit convener Al Masnun stated that while no official panel would be presented under BAGCHAS’s banner, individual members are free to contest as independents. The announcement comes on the very day nomination form sales are set to close at 3:30 p.m., capping a three-day rush of students braving monsoon rains to secure their candidacies.
Over the past two days, the election commission has sold nearly 170 nomination forms for central and hall union seats, with panels already declared by Islami Andolan, a joint left alliance under Droho Parshad, and independent student groups. BNP’s student wing and Jamaat-linked student groups have yet to confirm their panels.
The absence of BAGCHAS in CUCSU has stirred quiet speculation: is this a conscious strategy to regroup, or a ripple effect of their recent electoral setbacks in Dhaka University and Jahangirnagar University? Both DUCSU and JUCSU polls saw heavy defeats for the group, which only a year earlier had stood at the forefront of the July Uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina’s regime.
Within BAGCHAS and its ideological ally, the National Citizen Party (NCP), debates over reforms, leadership divisions, and even a possible name change have intensified in recent weeks. While leaders deny rumors of disbandment, they admit that frustration has grown after back-to-back disappointments on major campuses.
For now, the CUCSU race remains wide open. But the decision of BAGCHAS to stay off the ballot raises an uncomfortable question: is the movement’s student wing recalibrating—or retreating?
