In a striking turn of political nostalgia, the Bangladesh Jatiya League, the party once led by veteran statesman Ataur Rahman Khan, has finally secured official registration from the Election Commission (EC) after a 56-year wait. But the comeback isn’t just about paperwork: the party is now demanding the return of its original and iconic electoral symbol – the plough – a symbol it claims was “stolen” decades ago and has since become a potent emblem of agrarian identity in Bangladeshi politics.Founded on July 20, 1969 during the turbulent final years of Pakistan, the Jatiya League emerged under Ataur Rahman Khan, then Chief Minister of East Pakistan and a towering figure in the Bengali nationalist movement. Though he lost the 1970 Pakistani general election from Dhaka-3, he bounced back in independent Bangladesh’s first parliamentary poll in 1973, winning Dhaka-19 on the plough symbol. He later served as Prime Minister under General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1984-85, a controversial chapter that ultimately led to the party’s dissolution.
Now, decades after fading into political obscurity, the Jatiya League is staging a quiet but determined revival. “After a long journey, our party is finally getting EC registration,” said Mahbubul Alam, current chairman of the Bangladesh National League, in an interview with Jago News. “This is happy news for us—and for the legacy of Ataur Rahman Khan.”
But the real battle lies ahead: reclaiming the plough.
According to party leaders, the symbol was effectively “usurped” in the 1980s by Ershad’s newly formed Jatiya Party, which adopted the plough as its own, a move that severed the Jatiya League’s visual and emotional connection to its roots. Since then, the party has drifted through a series of unrecognisable symbols: first a pineapple, then “Kalar Chhari” (Banana cluster), neither of which resonated with voters or history.
“The rightful owner of the plough symbol is the Bangladesh Jatiya League,” Alam asserted. “Ataur Rahman Khan was the first MP elected under it. Professor Mofizul Islam also won from Cumilla with the same symbol in 1979. We will formally apply to the EC to restore our historical emblem.”
The timing of this revival is notable. The EC only began requiring formal party registration in 2008, and despite repeated applications over 17 years, the Jatiya League was consistently denied, until now.
If approved alongside the newly formed National Citizens Party (NCP), the number of officially registered political parties in Bangladesh will rise to 53.
This resurgence comes amid a broader recalibration of Bangladesh’s political landscape. Just months ago, the EC reinstated the registration of Jamaat-e-Islami, while simultaneously suspending the Awami League’s activities in May (a move later reversed).
Against this backdrop, the return of a party steeped in pre-independence history adds a new, if niche, dimension to the country’s fractured political theatre.
Ataur Rahman Khan himself remains a complex figure: a founding vice-president of the Awami League in 1949, a key organiser of the 1952 Language Movement, and East Pakistan’s last elected Chief Minister before the 1958 military coup. Yet his legacy is shadowed by his decision to join Ershad’s military-backed regime—a choice that alienated many former allies.
Still, his intellectual pedigree is undeniable. A gold medalist in Economics and Law from Dhaka University, Ataur was as much a scholar as a statesman.
His son, Ziaur Rahman Khan, later entered parliament under the BNP banner, further entangling the family in Bangladesh’s cyclical political dramas.
Now, as the Jatiya League steps back onto the stage, its leaders aren’t calling for revolution—but for recognition. “We’re not here to disrupt,” said Alam. “We’re here to reclaim our place in history—and our plough.”
Whether the Election Commission will hand back the symbol remains to be seen. But in a country where electoral emblems carry the weight of identity, memory, and rural solidarity, the plough may yet till new political ground.