July Mancha warns of Jatiya Party’s polls participation

July Mancha convener Ariful Islam Talukder on Friday warned that his platform would neither participate in nor accept any election involving the Jatiya Party, asserting that such an electoral process would lack legitimacy and amount to a betrayal of the July Movement. 

He made the remarks while addressing the Bangladesh Security Rally organised by July Mancha at Shahbagh in Dhaka.

Talukder framed the contest in the context of ongoing political struggle, saying the Awami League, Jatiya Party, and the Awami League-led 14-party alliance represented the opposing forces of what he described as the July coup. 

"We have taken the movement forward by defeating these forces," he said. Taking a hardline stance, Talukder warned that no political party in Bangladesh should participate in elections alongside a party allied with forces that Bangladesh had "defeated in 2024." 

He insisted that normalising electoral coexistence with the Jatiya Party would undermine the moral and political foundations of the July uprising.

Talukder further alleged that an advisory government had been formed through conspiracies, and efforts were underway to share state power by bypassing the people's movement.  

"We have tolerated a lot, but we will not tolerate it anymore," he said, signalling possible escalation if what he called political engineering continued.

He also criticised those exploiting the July Movement for personal gain, alleging that some individuals who became "celebrities and millionaires" were now willing to accept the Jatiya Party in elections to share power.