Awami League leaders in exile track B’desh polls from 2nd home in Kol
Times of India | 13 February 2026
Kolkata: Awami League leaders in exile in Kolkata, who spent sleepless nights over the past couple of days, heaved a sigh of relief after the election trends started coming in by Thursday evening. While they claimed that "real voter turnout" across Bangladesh was not more than 22%, with people responding to their "No Boat, No Vote" call, radical force Jamaat-e-Islami's fast movement in the power corridors of Dhaka could also be restricted. Jamaat's students' wing, Chhatra Shibir, played a crucial role in the fall of the Sheikh Hasina govt.
A month back, Awami League gave the call for "No Boat (symbol of the party), No Vote" and asked people to "peacefully abstain" from an election in which the "largest party of the country" was not allowed to take part. Over the past one month, AL leaders continued to campaign through virtual channels, asking people to opt for an election where all political parties can participate. Every MP was tasked with micromanaging the issues of their constituencies during the polling.
Alauddin Ahmed Chowdhury, Feni (1) MP and former private secretary to Hasina, followed the voting pattern in Bangladesh since Thursday morning. "Actual votes polled could be in the range of 20%-22% as per the data collected by our party workers across the country. Nearly 15% votes were polled till 11 am on Thursday. Suddenly, 18% more votes were polled in the next hour, and the figures started increasing exponentially. It cannot be a real polling pattern," he said, pointing at a "managed election and a planned farce". Polling in Bangladesh ended with 48% turnout.
The efforts to engineer the polls were apparent over the past couple of days, as Jamaat and its allies used every possible way to rig the polls, felt Salim Mahmud, Chandpur (1) MP and information secretary of the party. "The efforts were on since Wednesday, as there were multiple reports of BNP and Jamaat workers entering the booths, pre-stamped ballot papers being supplied, and people being forced to come out for voting," said Mahmud. He was glued to three mobile phones and two laptops since Wednesday afternoon. Messages popped up every moment from hundreds of WhatsApp and Telegram groups formed for AL party workers.
Rokeya Prachi, former cultural secretary of the party's women's wing, was tasked with running social media broadcast channels and uniting party workers and voters constantly. While two of her channels were suddenly taken down, Prachi managed to continue with another channel and spread the party's message. "We are considering it to be a victory for Sheikh Hasina, as people boycotted voting this time. There were reports of violence from places like Noakhali, Mymensingh, Kishoreganj, and Sylhet," she said.
But the AL leaders also heaved a sigh of relief as the trends showed Jamaat lagging far behind. "Our leader hoped that the BNP would lift the ban on AL if it is voted into office. BNP has its roots in mass politics. But Jamaat's surge during the tenure of Muhammad Yunus opened the floodgates for radicalism in the country. We hope that will be restricted now," said an AL leader.