32 leaders, activists have quit NCP, 8 expelled

Since National Citizen Party (NCP) emerged as a political party on February 28, 2025, a total of 32 leaders and activists have resigned from the NCP, while 8 leaders at various tiers have been dismissed or expelled on charges ranging from corruption to moral turpitude.

Despite the string of departures, NCP Joint Member Secretary Mushfique Us Salehin has rejected any suggestion that the party is facing an internal breakup. Speaking to The Daily Observer, he said, "I don't want to treat this as a division. We have committees in 200 Upazilas across 33 districts. If I take the minimum number, each committee has at least 20 members. Some of our largest committees have 50 or 60 members. Overall, we have at least 7,000 to 8,000 people in our various committees. If 25 of them resign and none from the central committee, then I don't think it is very significant."

Salehin attributed the resignations to a combination of internal and external factors. "Those who are resigning have their own reasons. During our July March, we received feedback that some outsiders, involved in other parties, were entering our committees and creating disturbances in our organizational activities-some of them are among those resigning. Secondly, we had to announce the committees within the timeframe set by the Election Commission (EC), so we may have had some weaknesses in forming them under such time pressure. In some cases, names were included in committees based on oral consensus rather than formal confirmation. In other cases, individuals resigned because they did not get the positions they expected," he said.
Among those who left, Joint Chief Coordinators Abu Hanif and Abduz Zaher, and Joint Chief Organizer (Northern Region) Hanif Khan Sajib returned to the Gono Odhikar Parishad after resigning from the NCP, a party they had joined from. Ismail Hossain of Sonagazi Upazila in Feni resigned claiming affiliation with the BNP family. Others cited personal reasons or irregularities in the committees, though several resignations came from key local committees including leaders from Rajshahi, Rangpur, Shariatpur, Faridpur, Madaripur, Satkania in Chittagong and Matlab Dakshin in Chandpur.

Salehin accused some media outlets and YouTube channels of amplifying the resignations for political effect. "A media framing is going on against us. Some are trying to say that there is division among us, that the NCP's popularity is declining and that people are no longer interested in staying connected with the NCP. They are exaggerating a very small issue to present it as something much bigger. The mass reception we received during our July March across the country-throughout an entire month-does not match the picture these reports are trying to paint," he asserted.

In parallel with the resignations, the party has also undertaken disciplinary action against several of its own. Within two months of its debut, NCP expelled Joint Member Secretary Gazi Salauddin Tanvir on charges of corruption and trading in postings and transfers. while suspended Joint Coordinator Nahidul Islam alias Saju; dissolved the Madaripur District and Sadar Upazila Coordination Committees following a stabbing incident involving the Member Secretary of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, expelled two Madaripur leaders from all posts and removed Kurigram District Joint Coordinator Advocate Abdul Barek on his own application. Other actions include dismissing Gaibandha's Sundarganj Upazila Organizer Al-Shahadat Zaman Jico, accepting the resignation of Sylhet District Joint Coordinator Abul Azraf Md Jabur after a violent altercation during a July Uprising Day event and temporarily expelling Chittagong City Branch Joint Coordinator Nizam Uddin on August 12 over a ransom demand of five lakh taka.

On the party's policy going forward, Salehin stated, "We have now reached an organizational decision to develop a disciplinary code. We want to ensure exemplary punitive measures against anyone engaged in anti-disciplinary activities. As a preventive measure, we are planning to appoint committees in the future only after thorough scrutiny."