Political uncertainty deepened in Bangladesh as two student leaders, Mahfuj Alam and Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain, who became advisers in the interim administration resigned ahead of the country’s planned February 2026 elections.

The country’s election commission has mandated that no serving interim government official is eligible for contesting the upcoming polls. Their exits come as the Election Commission prepares to unveil the polling timetable, a step viewed as pivotal for restoring political stability after 2024’s upheaval, Prothom Alo reported.

Both advisers had been appointed as representatives of Students Against Discrimination, the activist group whose street mobilisation forced the removal of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024. Since then Hasina remains exiled in India and her party Awami League has been barred from contesting elections.

Alam oversaw the information and broadcasting portfolio, while Bhuyain supervised local government affairs. While some student leaders have been endorsing positions long held by islamist political parties in Bangladesh such as the Jamat-e-Islami, their influence on the emergent polity is hard to gauge at this stage.

Their departure leaves only one of the original three appointees from the student movement still active in government after Nahid Islam stepped down in February 2025 to launch the National Citizen Party, which emerged as a political arm of the activist bloc.

Bhuyain earlier indicated he would quit in order to run for elected office, while Alam has remained silent about his next steps. Neither has confirmed ties to the National Citizen Party or any other political grouping.