Protests Erupt in Faridpur as Bhanga Upazila Faces Division for Parliamentary Seat Reorganization**

Faridpur: Local residents blocked the Dhaka-Khulna and Dhaka-Barishal highways on Friday morning to protest the Election Commission's decision to split Bhanga Upazila as part of the reorganization of parliamentary constituencies. The blockade began around 8:30 AM in the Sowadi Bus Stand area of Algi Union on the Dhaka-Khulna highway. By 9:00 AM, hundreds of people in Hamirdi Union’s Monsurabad, Madhabpur, and Pukuria areas blocked the Dhaka-Barishal highway.

According to a gazette issued by the Election Commission on Thursday, the boundaries of 46 parliamentary constituencies across the country were redrawn. As part of this, two unions—Algi and Hamirdi—were detached from Faridpur-4 (comprising Bhanga, Sadarpur, and Charbhadrasan) and merged with Faridpur-2 (Nagarkanda and Saltha). This decision sparked widespread discontent, with the Bhanga Upazila units of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the National Citizens Party (NCP) announcing protest programs on social media.

Eyewitnesses reported that people from various villages in Bhanga took to the streets, chanting slogans such as, “We are Bhanga’s people, and we want to stay with Bhanga.” The blockade caused hundreds of buses and trucks to be stranded on both sides of the highways. Although police from Bhanga Thana and the Highway Police were present at the scene, they remained largely passive due to the large number of protesters. Palash Saha, a resident of Hamid village in Hamirdi Union, said, “We live in Bhanga and want to stay in Bhanga. We will never accept Nagarkanda’s dominance. We will resist this decision by the Election Commission at any cost.” Shahidul Islam, alias Babul, a BNP nomination aspirant for Faridpur-4 and general secretary of the party’s central farmers’ wing, condemned the decision. In a video message on Thursday night, he stated, “Our commitment is to bring these two unions back to Bhanga at any cost. We will do whatever it takes. Stay with us, and we will see this through to the end.” The blockade caused significant disruptions, with many travelers forced to walk to their destinations. The NCP’s Bhanga unit announced a “Bhanga Blockade” program on Thursday night via a Facebook post by its convener, Md. Ashraf. The post stated that the protest would take place on the Dhaka-Khulna highway in front of Bhanga Pourashava after Friday prayers. However, locals began the blockade earlier than the announced time. Sarwar Hossain, a Jamaat-e-Islami nomination aspirant for Faridpur-4, told that, “Bhanga is a historic upazila. We will not accept this division. We will fight through movements and struggles to resist it and achieve our demands.” Notably, Faridpur previously had five parliamentary constituencies, but they were reduced to four before the 2008 election through seat reorganization. At that time, Bhanga was combined with Charbhadrasan and Sadarpur to form the Faridpur-4 constituency.