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Bangladesh election results: Jamaat-e-Islami lone Hindu candidate Krishna Nandi loses Khulna 1 seat as BNP sweeps polls
Ameer Ejaz Khan will be taking the seat from Noni Gopal Mondal, a Hindu candidate from Awami League party who won the seat three times previously.
Krishna Nandi, the lone Hindu candidate fielded by Jamaat-e-Islami (JMI), has lost in the Khulna-1 (Botiaghata and Dacope) constituency. Ameer Ejaz Khan from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party has secured the seat with a total of 121,352 votes.
As per Dhaka-based The Business Standard, in the 120 centers of the constituency, Khan received 121,352 votes with the paddy sheaf symbol. However, the Jamaat candidate received 70,346 votes with the Daripalla symbol.
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Ameer Ejaz Khan will be taking the seat from Noni Gopal Mondal, a Hindu candidate from the now banned Awami League party who has previously held the post twice in 2008 and 2024.
Khulna-1 seat history
In the 2001 elections, Panchanan Biswas from the Awami League won. In 2008, Awami League fielded Noni Gopal Mondal, who won the elections. However in 2014 and 2018, Panchanan Biswas returned as MP on an Awami League ticket.
In 2024, Noni Gopal Mondal won again while contesting on an Awami League ticket.
Nandi pitched amid attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh
Since the 2024 uprising, Bangladesh has seen a rise in attacks on minorities. During the student-led movement, violence broke out across the nation.
Furthermore, as violence increased in 2025 following the death of student leader Osman Hadi, the cases of attacks on Hindu minorities increased.
It started with Dipu Chandra Das, a garment factory worker, who was beaten and set on fire by a mob in Bhaluka, Mymensingh, over alleged blasphemy, according to reports. His death was widely condemned and the interim government led by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus said, "There is no space for such violence in new Bangladesh. The perpetrators of this heinous crime will not be spared.”
Another Hindu man, a grocery shop owner, was reportedly killed after being attacked with sharp weapons in Narsingdi, on the outskirts of Bangladesh's Dhaka, on January 6.
On the eve of the national elections, another a Hindu businessman was killed in Mymensingh. The victim, identified as 62-year-old Susen Chandra Sarkar, was a rice trader. Sarkar was hacked to death inside his shop.
Amid the increase, Nandi fought on the Jammat ticket, stating that his contention in the elections on a JMI ticket is proof that Bangladeshi Hindus will be safe.
Contesting for the constituency, Nandi wrote for Al Jazeera, and said that his run in politics as a Hindu contesting with Jammat shows that Bangladeshi Hindus are not in danger.
"My name is Krishna Nandi. I am a Hindu. I am a businessman. I am also a parliamentary candidate of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. For many readers, this combination appears unusual. For me, it reflects a deeper truth about politics in Bangladesh that has long been obscured by fear, misinformation and political convenience," he wrote ahead of the Bangladesh polls.
"If Jamaat-e-Islami comes to power, no Hindu will have to leave Bangladesh. No Hindu will be forced to go to India. Instead, Hindus will live in this country with dignity, safety and respect. When I say that Hindus will be treated with honour, I am not speaking symbolically. I am talking about concrete guarantees of security, justice and equal citizenship under the law," Nandi added further.
