Former state minister for information Abu Sayeed on Wednesday joined the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

He joined the party at the BNP chairperson’s office at Gulshan in the capital Dhaka, where he was welcomed with flowers by BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

A day earlier, Abu Sayeed held a meeting with BNP chairman Tarique Rahman.

Speaking to reporters after joining the BNP, Abu Sayeed said that the current political climate had compelled him to make the decision.

‘Given the way fundamentalism is rising all around, I believe, as a patriotic citizen, that the BNP is the only party that should be taken forward at this moment. That is why I have joined BNP,’ he said.

He said that he was contesting the national election from the Pabna-1 constituency and said that he would continue to be in the race if the party asked him to do so.

Abu Sayeed is a seasoned politician with a long and varied career spanning several political camps.

He was a member of the constitution drafting committee of Bangladesh and first entered parliament in 1973 from Pabna-1, becoming one of the early lawmakers of the newly independent country under the Awami League.

He was re-elected from the same seat in the seventh parliament elections in 1996.

In the same year, he served as state minister for information under the Awami League government and remained in that role for five years.

During the 1996 elections, he defeated Jamaat-e-Islami leader Matiur Rahman Nizami in Pabna-1.

However, he lost the seat in the subsequent election.

Over the decades, Abu Sayeed has contested elections under different banners.

He was a BAKSAL candidate in the fifth parliament election in 1991, an Awami League candidate in the eighth parliament elections in 2001, and an independent candidate in the 10th parliament elections in 2014 after failing to secure an Awami League nomination.

In the 11th parliamentary elections in 2018, he contested from Pabna-1 as a candidate of Gonoforum under the Jatiya Oikya Front alliance, using the paddy sheaf symbol, but was defeated.

Following the political changes after the 1/11 period, Abu Sayeed became known as a reform-minded figure within the Awami League, a stance that eventually led to his removal from party leadership positions and the loss of a nomination in the 2008 elections.

The ‘1/11 period’ refers to the military-backed caretaker government that took power on January 11, 2007.