Bhola, a coastal district synonymous with cyclones, tidal surges and erosion, has repeatedly produced influential figures in Bangladesh’s national politics. The catastrophic cyclone of 1970 that tore across the district intensified popular fury against the central government in then-East Pakistan and sharpened the political turmoil that helped set the stage for the independence struggle. After independence, the district remained a deeply active and consequential force in national politics. Several national-level figures have risen from Bhola, and they have helped chart the country’s political course — from both inside and outside the corridors of power. Over time, Bhola has come to be regarded less as a mere island district than as a cradle of national political heavyweights.
Among the politicians born in Bhola who have exerted the greatest influence on post-independence politics are Tofail Ahmed, Major (retired) Hafiz Uddin Ahmad Bir Bikram, and the late Naziur Rahman Manzur. Political analysts, along with national and local politicians, note that the devastating cyclone first thrust the district into the international spotlight, while the emergence of able and powerful leaders later entrenched its importance in national politics. Yet the district has never become a stronghold of any single party. Instead, different constituencies have yielded national leaders from rival parties, each leaving their mark on the district’s politics and development.
Mahmudur Rahman Manna, president of the Nagorik Oikko party, has observed the rise and careers of the three men from within national politics over a long period. Their paths, he says, were entirely distinct. Manna told Bonik Barta: “Tofail Ahmed was a natural political leader. He rose through the student union election at BM College in Barisal, later became vice-president of Zahurul Huq Hall at the University of Dhaka, and then VP of DUCSU. In the 1969 mass uprising, he became the symbol of student unity. He was also among the leadership of the Mujib Bahini during the Liberation War.”
Of Hafiz Uddin Ahmad, Manna said: “He was active in student politics and popular as a sportsman. A freedom fighter, a well-known athlete and a descendant of a political family, he quickly established himself as an important BNP leader.”
Manna said of Naziur Rahman Manzur that he was close to the Chhatra League in his student days but never deeply engaged in ideological politics. He added: “He grew close to Hussain Muhammad Ershad through personal connections and served as a minister in Ershad’s government.”
Back in November 1970, a severe cyclone, coupled with a tidal surge, tore across Bhola, Manpura, Tazumuddin, Charfesson and the surrounding islands. It remains one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in the country’s history. The general election that followed barely a month later brought Tofail Ahmed to the National Assembly as an Awami League candidate. Yet his rise had begun earlier, at the University of Dhaka, where he first came to prominence in student politics. As a DUCSU vice-president during the 1968–69 mass uprising, he convened the Sarbadaliya Chhatra Sangram Parishad (All-Party Student Struggle Committee). He served as one of four regional commanders of the Mujib Bahini during the Liberation War. After independence, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman appointed him as a political secretary — a post that thrust him into the centre of Awami League politics.
Another Bhola figure who reached the highest tiers of the state is Major (retired) Hafiz Uddin Ahmad, Bir Bikram, speaker of the 13th parliament. A former army officer, freedom fighter, sportsman and politician, he has long operated at the heart of national affairs. Born in Lalmohan, Bhola, on October 29, 1944, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from the University of Dhaka. He received his commission in the Pakistan Army in 1966 and retired a decade later.
Hafiz Uddin Ahmad has won election to parliament seven times from the Bhola-3 (Lalmohan-Tazumuddin) constituency. He first entered the Parliament as an independent in 1991. Ahmad then joined the BNP the following year and later sat on its national standing committee. Under BNP governments, he served as state minister for commerce in 1996 and as minister for water resources, commerce and jute in 2001. After the most recent general election in February returned the BNP to power, he took charge of the liberation war affairs ministry and was subsequently elected the speaker of the Parliament.
His role in the Liberation War carries distinct weight beyond his political identity. On March 30, 1971, he led a rebellion against Pakistani forces at the Jashore cantonment, then fought across the Jashore-Khulna and Sylhet sectors as commander of the 1st East Bengal Regiment. For his gallantry, he received the state award Bir Bikram.
Beyond politics, Ahmad captained the Pakistan national football team and spent many years playing for Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club.
Nazimuddin Alam, a member of the BNP chairperson’s advisory council and a former MP, described Major (retired) Hafiz Uddin Ahmad Bir Bikram as a figure of probity and influence in the country’s political history. “He has deep roots in his constituency. He has also built an important standing at the highest national level, which is a matter of pride for local people,” Alam told Bonik Barta. He added that others who have risen from Bhola’s remote reaches to national politics, despite ideological differences that prevent him endorsing every action they have taken, have each sought to deliver from their own positions.
Another heavyweight leader from Bhola, the late Naziur Rahman Manzur, served as MP for Bhola-1. He was a former local government, rural development and cooperatives minister and a former mayor of Dhaka City Corporation. He founded the Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) in 2000. His son Andaleeve Rahman Partho now leads the party as its chairman and is MP for the Bhola-1 seat.
Manzur grew up in Bhola before moving to Dhaka for higher education. He completed a bachelor’s degree and a master’s in commerce at the University of Dhaka, where he was active in student politics with the Chhatra League. He also played an active role in the 1969 mass uprising. When the Liberation War broke out, he fought directly in Sector 9. He later joined his father’s business after independence.
Manzur then entered the politics of the Jatiyo Party, winning a parliamentary seat in 1986. He served as a state minister in 1987 and was elevated to full minister in 1989, holding the local government portfolio. Manzur was one of five members of a national council for the implementation of the late President Hussain Muhammad Ershad’s 18-point programme and was assigned responsibility for the Khulna division. He was subsequently appointed organising secretary of the implementation council, a committee chaired by Ershad himself. A skilled organiser, Manzur held the post of organising secretary of the Jatiyo Party on multiple occasions.
Dr Ashikur Rahman Shanto, the son of Naziur Rahman Manzur, told Bonik Barta that his father’s politics was never city-centred. “He worked for the overall development of the entire Bhola district. His ties with the people of Bhola were extremely close. Improving and empowering the local government system was the central focus of his political life. He felt a deep passion and commitment to Bhola, making its development the axis of his political thought and action. His development work spanned the district’s erosion-prone areas such as Charfesson, Monpura, Tazumuddin and the district as a whole.”
The leap from a remote district like Bhola to national politics owes most to student politics, believes Professor Tanzimuddin Khan of the University of Dhaka’s international relations department. He told Bonik Barta: “Many of the leaders from Bhola who have established themselves nationally were active in politics from their student lives. Active participation in politics at the University of Dhaka, in particular, played a crucial role in building their recognition and leadership. In Bangladesh’s politics, leaders have emerged from many regions outside Dhaka. Those who succeed in student politics, especially, often later manage to attain important positions in national politics. The same pattern holds for Bhola’s leaders.”
Altaf Parvez, a political analyst, writer and researcher, told Bonik Barta that Tofail Ahmed, Major (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmad and the late Naziur Rahman Manzur were essentially national-level politicians. “Though Bhola is their root and constituency, their identity can’t be confined to regional politics. Their politics operated at a national level, yet they maintained close ties with their local constituencies,” Parvez said.
He argued that in the politics of that period, public support and local acceptance were the decisive factors, compelling national leaders to keep close contact with their constituencies. Their paths to national prominence differed. Some rose through student politics and grassroots organising, while for others a top-down dynamic held greater sway. Yet, regardless of their different political paths, all of them maintained connections with their locality.