A high-powered delegation of Bangladesh’s Awami League (AL), including four MPs and senior officials from Sheikh Hasina’s previous administration, met the ousted Prime Minister in New Delhi on Thursday evening (October 9), in what party insiders described as a “strategic and decisive” move to plan the AL’s next steps against the interim government led by Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus.
According to senior party sources, the eight-member delegation travelled to the Indian capital via Kolkata on October 8 and held a three-hour closed-door meeting with Hasina at the location where she is currently residing as a guest of India. The team comprised MPs Saiful Islam (Dhaka-19), Moinuddin Bachhu (Chattogram-10), Md Sadab Akhtar (Faridpur), and Ashek Ullah Rafiq (Cox’s Bazar-02), along with Lt General Akbar Hossain, DIG (Counter Terrorism Unit) Asaduzzaman, and Additional DIG and Joint Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Biplob Sarkar.
During the meeting, Hasina reportedly outlined a comprehensive roadmap for the party’s resurgence, directing leaders to mobilise mass protests across Bangladesh through the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the party’s influential student wing, as the vanguard of the movement.
“The former Prime Minister has given us the green signal to launch a full-scale agitation, focusing on issues that directly impact ordinary citizens, rampant crimes against women, forced disappearance, and widespread extortion carried out under the banner of fundamentalist organisations,” said a senior AL leader privy to the discussions.
Discontent over “misrule” under interim government
The meeting comes against a backdrop of growing public dissatisfaction with the Yunus-led interim regime, which has faced criticism for its handling of law and order, alleged inaction against extremist elements, and the rising influence of Jamaat-e-Islami across the country.
Party insiders allege that Jamaat activists, emboldened by the political vacuum, have unleashed a wave of extortion, intimidation, and violence, particularly targeting small traders and those refusing to pay “subscriptions.” Reports of gang rapes, vandalism, and assaults have fuelled public anger.
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“Social media platforms are now flooded with disturbing visuals,” said one MP who attended the Delhi meeting. “One clip shows Army personnel idly watching as civilians are assaulted in broad daylight. Another depicts a street vendor being extorted by a youth claiming allegiance to Jamaat. Such incidents have shaken the very conscience of the nation.”
Rising tensions and political undercurrents
The Awami League leadership sees this as a turning point, an opportunity to capitalise on public anger among citizens who once supported last year’s youth-led uprising that ousted Hasina’s government.
“People are losing faith in the current dispensation,” said another senior AL figure. “They are beginning to realise that the so-called reformist forces have delivered neither peace nor justice. The time is ripe for our return.”
The AL is determined to prevent its arch-rival, the BNP, from reaping political dividends from the widespread discontent. One senior MP, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the party intends to channel the public fury into a renewed electoral mandate.
“If the elections, as pledged by Yunus, are held early next year, our objective is clear, to transform the people’s fury into our political capital,” he said. “The masses have begun drawing stark comparisons between the era of Hasina’s disciplined governance and the prevailing chaos under Yunus’s administration. They are beginning to understand that Bangladesh has no viable alternative to the Awami League as the custodian of stability, progress, and national integrity.”
The lawmaker emphasised that the party’s resurgence strategy hinges on reclaiming its image as the only cohesive political force capable of restoring order while ensuring that BNP’s opportunism finds no traction amid the turmoil.
A calculated resurgence
Political observers in both Dhaka and New Delhi interpret the covert Delhi meeting as a calculated move by the AL to reorganise in exile, strengthen its regional ties, and reassert its dominance in Bangladesh’s shifting political landscape.
While Indian authorities have not issued an official statement, diplomatic sources said New Delhi is closely monitoring developments in Dhaka, wary of rising fundamentalism and instability along its eastern frontier.
As the situation unfolds, Sheikh Hasina’s re-emergence on the political chessboard, backed by loyalists and a restive populace, signals that Bangladesh’s political battleground remains far from settled, with the Awami League preparing for a stormy return to the national stage.
By Pranab Mondal
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