This is not a party line, nor an NCP talking point. It is my own reading of Shibir’s victory in the DUCSU elections, and I confess, I am not the least bit surprised.

From a distance, the outcome was obvious. The explanation lies less in how Shadik Kayem was presented and more in the hard mechanics of politics. Every victory rests on two pillars: organizational strength and external circumstance. Shibir had both.

Internally, they remain unmatched. For decades, Chhatra Shibir has been the most disciplined, structurally sound student organization in Bangladesh. Their ideology is sharp, their hierarchy intact, their discipline ironclad.

Unlike the BNP, where personal ambition routinely overwhelms collective interest, Shibir’s politics are rooted in ideology rather than personality. That makes them less vulnerable to fracture, more resilient to pressure.

In a political ecosystem addicted to improvisation and patronage, Shibir thrives by design.

Externally, their opponents handed them the election. In the post-July climate, when the BNP reached for the Awami League’s oldest weapon–the tired “Rajakar vs. Muktijoddha” binary–they sealed half of Shibir’s victory themselves.

To deploy a narrative that had already deceived and exhausted the public for sixteen years was not only just tone-deaf; it was suicidal.

The electorate, already chanting “Who are you and who am I, a Rajakar,” recognized the trick for what it was: a recycled script with no credibility left.

The lesson is stark. Shibir won not only because they were prepared, but because their rivals chose the wrong battlefield, and the wrong weapon.

The politically aware public no longer buys the script. After sixteen years of being bludgeoned with the same “liberation war versus Rajakar” narrative, students at Dhaka University finally rejected it for what it was: a weapon of exploitation.

When they marched in July chanting, “Who are you and who am I, a Rajakar,” they declared an end to that binary. To replay the same card in that climate was bound to backfire.

And it did.

That is why Jamaat-Shibir’s victory cannot be read solely as their own triumph. It is equally the opposition’s collapse, a direct consequence of the BNP, the NCP, and the left failing to supply an alternative political story.

In the absence of one, students defaulted to the only disciplined force left standing.

Grasping the key factors

I have said this since August 5th: three tipping points explain Shibir’s landslide at Dhaka University.

First, the clumsy resurrection of the “Rajakar” card drove students–by default–into Shibir’s column. Their message was unmistakable: we will not play by your binary.

Second, politics in Bangladesh remains haunted by two unresolved issues–resentment toward India and the demand for accountability from the Awami League.

On both fronts, the electorate looks for strength. Among student organizations, Shibir projected that strength more convincingly than its rivals.

Third, when forced to choose between two imperfect vessels–Chhatra Dal and Chhatra Shibir–students gravitated toward the one that seemed less compromised and more structurally intact.

In the end, Shibir’s victory was not inevitable. It was made inevitable–by an opposition that recycled the wrong narrative, and left a vacuum Shibir was perfectly positioned to fill.

Chhatra Shibir triumphed because it is more organized than any other student organization in Bangladesh today. It understood the political psychologies at play, exploited them with precision, and, in the end, won the game.

The election should put to rest a long-standing conceit of our politics: the belief that ordinary people are fools.

For decades, parties have operated under the illusion that the public will swallow whatever is served up in the name of ideology or nationalism. That arrogance has defined our political culture.

The DUCSU result exposes the fallacy. Students did not passively accept recycled narratives. They made a choice grounded in their own political awareness, one that asserted their agency in a way the establishment refused to anticipate.

That should serve as a lesson. Whether you choose to take it–or dismiss it–is now up to you.

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Dilshana Parul is the Coordinator of NCP Diaspora Alliance. She is a development professional in Australia.