Jamaat not a reliable ally, seat-sharing will make NCP ‘pay a heavy price’: Samantha Sharmin

National Citizen Party (NCP) Senior Joint Convener Samantha Sharmin has warned that Jamaat-e-Islami is not a dependable political ally and that any seat-sharing arrangement with the party could make the NCP "pay a heavy price".

She made the remarks today in a post on her Facebook page, amid discussions on possible electoral seat negotiations.

"Any cooperation or compromise with them -- including alignment with their ideology -- will come at a steep cost for the NCP," she wrote, referring to Jamaat.

Her comments follow recent remarks by senior Jamaat leaders suggesting that alliances were possible if parties agreed on the "spirit of July" and Jamaat's national roadmap.

Samantha reiterated that the NCP's core principles -- justice, state reform and constituent assembly elections for a "Second Republic" -- remain fundamentally different from Jamaat's and are non-negotiable for any political partnership.

She also accused Jamaat of obstructing parliamentary reforms by opposing proportional representation (PR), a stance earlier cited by NCP leadership to rule out coalition talks.

After the July uprising, the NCP announced it would field candidates in all 300 constituencies and contest elections independently, inviting aspirants nationwide to run without coalition commitments.

Samantha clarified that her criticism of Jamaat should not be read as support for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), calling herself "a soldier of NCP's ideals" and warning that any coalition talks with either Jamaat or BNP would signal a shift away from the party's stated organisational strategy.