Dhaka, Mar 20 (V7N) -A group of former military officials is going to launch a new political party named ‘Janatar Dal’ on Thursday at the capital, with Brig Gen (retd) Md Shamim Kamal leading the initiative. 

Several retired army officers—including Lieutenant Generals, Major Generals, and Brigadier generals—along with some former lawmakers from several political parties are expected to join this new party.

 

While talking with Dhaka Tribune on Wednesday, Md Shamim Kamal said that apart from military officials, student leaders who have been participating in the July Revolution, NGO workers, bureaucrats, businessmen have shown their interest to join with us.

‘Honesty’ has been set as one of the key criteria to join this new party ‘Janatar Dal’ which will be Bangladesh centric and ideology will be centrism.

Kamal, who is son of Mojibur Rahman, a seven-time Jatiya Party MP from Lalmonirhat-2, emphasized that the party would not include any controversial or corrupt individuals, nor would it accept donations from questionable sources. 

Janatar Dal’s concept note outlines a vision to bring honest, educated, and patriotic individuals into parliament, with candidates selected from the grassroots level. 

Shamim, the chairman of the new party, who resigned from Army in 2022 and later got involved in business, expresses his optimism that the ‘Janatar Dal’ will contest in the upcoming next national parliament election and preparation is ongoing for it.  

However, on Thursday afternoon, the Janatar Party is arranging its launching event at an auditorium at Khamarbari of the capital followed by Iftar and more details will come from that event about the new party.

This will not be the first political party in Bangladesh founded by retired military officers, as the BNP, Jatiya Party, and several other parties were also established by military personnel in the past.

END/MSS/AJ