BNP and Awami League Offered Seats and Ministries, We Were Not Tempted: Charmonai Pir in Barishal

Both the BNP and the Awami League offered parliamentary seats and ministerial posts to lure his party into an alliance, Islami Andolan Bangladesh Ameer Mufti Syed Muhammad Rezaul Karim, known as the Pir of Charmonai, has claimed. He said his party was not tempted by those offers.

He made the remarks on Sunday (1 November) afternoon as chief guest at the inaugural programme of Dawati Month, organised by the Barishal city unit of Islami Andolan Bangladesh at Town Hall square in Barishal city. Leaders and activists of the city unit and local-level office-bearers attended the programme.

Rezaul Karim said: 'If we needed perhaps 20-30 MPs or one or two ministries and if we were greedy, why would we have to become MPs by staying with Jamaat? The BNP had already made us that offer. The Awami League also made that offer; we were not tempted.'

He said: 'We do politics not out of greed for power, but with the aim of the welfare of the country, Islam and the people.' In his words, they want to protect the country, Islam and people's welfare by staying on the path of unadulterated truth, and do politics with that goal.

In his speech, he also indicated that there is no possibility of a political alliance with the opposition Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.

Raising his party's decision to field candidates in all 300 seats alone in the national election, he said: 'When we announced candidates in 300 seats on our own, Alhamdulillah, even I did not realise that more than 2.25 million votes would be cast for Islami Andolan even in difficult times. We could not even imagine it.'

He said that although the expected result did not come in the election, they were neither disappointed nor gave up. Defeat or a rout may be natural, but they did not move away from their political goal, he noted.

Rezaul Karim said that after the 2026 national election, no one else is in a position to claim third place as a party in the name of Islam. He claimed Islami Andolan Bangladesh can now say that if one wants politics based on the ideals of unadulterated Islam, there is no alternative to Islami Andolan Bangladesh.

He also said that while various political parties published manifestos in the national election, Islami Andolan Bangladesh clearly presented in its manifesto a pledge to run the state on the basis of Islam and Shariah. When publishing the manifesto on national television, they pledged to the nation that if Allah brings them to power, they will run the country according to Islam and Shariah.

Noting that fear and misconceptions about Islam exist among people, he said: 'Many people shudder when they hear the word Islam. To them, Islam seems like something frightening, like a tiger or a bear. But in reality, Islam is an ideal.'