Staff Correspondent 
Samanta Sharmin, a leader of the National Citizen Party (NCP), has resigned from the party. She announced her decision in a lengthy statement posted on her Facebook account at around 6:30pm on Thursday (November 5).
In her statement, Sharmin said she had taken a different position on the NCP’s alliance-building strategy nearly a year ago. She maintained that Jamaat-e-Islami was not a suitable ally, either in principle or strategy, and warned that forming an alliance with the party would come at a heavy cost for the NCP.
Over the past 11 months, she said, she had submitted written complaints and proposals at various levels of the party and engaged in debates and discussions about the NCP’s past activities and future course of action.
She said she had chosen to pursue an ideological struggle within the party, believing it was her political responsibility to try to prevent the organisation from taking the wrong path. According to her, challenging the party’s adopted policies through recognised forums and democratic means was the only way to bring about change.
Sharmin said she was ending her nearly year-long struggle because she no longer believed the NCP could remain committed to the values it upheld at its inception.
She added that she could have waited for a more appropriate moment to resign, when her decision might have been viewed as a response to a specific party decision or action. However, she considered such a wait meaningless.
Even if the NCP eventually takes political decisions such as ending its alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami, she said, she does not believe the party will be able to develop an identity, vision and programme distinct from traditional political parties.
“Political parties belonging to the old system will never help establish a new state system; rather, they will stand in its way,” she said in the statement.
Sharmin added that the time had come to make public the disagreements and discussions she had with the party, both to its members and to well-wishers outside its organisational structure.
