In Bangladesh’s political theater, few stages matter as much as Dhaka University. It has been the crucible of revolutions, the training ground for national leaders, and the pressure gauge of public sentiment. The results of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) elections of 2025 are therefore not just a campus story — they are a preview, a trailer, of what the country’s 2026 general elections may look like.

This time, the curtain rose to reveal an unexpected outcome. The Islami Chhatra Shibir (the student wing of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami)–backed panel achieved a decisive victory, capturing the posts of vice president, general secretary, assistant general secretary, and a majority of the secretary positions. It was not a close contest but a landslide, conducted through a largely peaceful vote, with turnout ranging from 65% to 87% across centers—a level of engagement that should make national parties take notice rather than slumber.

For those who study the correlation between student politics and national elections in Bangladesh, the message is blunt: the old order is gone, and the vacuum it left has not been filled with a credible alternative. What has emerged instead is a surge of organized Islamist student politics at the heart of the nation’s most influential university.

Bangladesh’s political history is impossible to separate from its student movements. The 1952 Language Movement began with students. The 1969 uprising that toppled Ayub Khan’s regime? Student-led. The 1971 Liberation War was catalyzed in no small part by campus activism. Even the democratic restoration in the 1990s bore the fingerprints of organized student agitation.

DUCSU has always been more than a student council. It has been a bellwether. When Bangladesh Chhatra League dominated DUCSU, Awami League drew comfort. When Chhatra Dal( the student wing of Bangladesh........

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