Oct. 13: Two grandsons of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman could become the face of the ruling Awami League in Bangladesh's next general election, due in 2019, about the time Indira Gandhi's grandson will lead the Congress into the Lok Sabha elections in India.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, 45, and nephew Radwan Mujib Siddiq Bobby, 36, have been picked as delegates to a party conference later this month. Many have spotted in the move the signs of a succession plan.
Bobby is the son of Hasina's sister Rehana, whose daughter Tulip is a member of the British parliament.
"There's a lot of popular interest in the party's national council meeting this time as both Joybhai and Bobbybhai have been made councillors (delegates)," said a young Awami League MP, who asked not to be named.
At the national council meetings, held every five years, the "councillors" elect the senior party officials. The councillors are themselves nominated to the national council by the secretaries and presidents of the party's district units: one councillor for 20,000 people.
Joy has been nominated from Rangpur district and Bobby from Dhaka North. At the October 22-23 council, around 4,000 councillors are expected to elect the party's president, the members of its presidium (the highest policy- making body) and the remaining members of the central working committee.
"Being nominated as councillor means they are getting a step closer to full-time politics," said the young MP. He added that Joy had begun spending more time in Bangladesh.
Joy, an IT professional in Washington DC, and Bobby, a London School of Economics alumnus who heads the party's research cell in Dhaka, have so far kept their distance from day-to-day politics in Bangladesh. Joy is an IT adviser to the Prime Minister other than being a primary member of the Awami League.
While Hasina, 70, daughter of Sheikh Mujib, heads the Awami League, the rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is helmed by Begum Khaleda Zia, 73, widow of army chief turned President Ziaur Rahman.
Khaleda's elder son Tarique Rahman, 48, who is in exile in London, has been steering the BNP's activities for over two decades and is expected to eventually take up the party reins.
Both Joy and Bobby have been keeping a low profile and nobody is sure when they might enter full-time politics.
When this correspondent interviewed Joy in November 2013 and cited the example of Rahul Gandhi - a personal friend of his - to ask when he might take the plunge, Joy evaded a clear answer.
"Unlike him (Rahul), I have never been quite so directly involved and have preferred to work behind the scenes to help my country and my mother," he said.
"He (Rahul) made the decision to become actively involved quite a long time ago, while I still have not."
But the demands from the Awami League ranks to induct Joy into the core of the party have grown louder in the past few years.
A similar clamour within the Congress had brought Rahul to public life in 2004, when he contested and won a Lok Sabha election from Amethi at 34. Rahul became a party general secretary in three years and the vice-president in another six, and will be the face of the Congress in the key Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab next year.
Compared with the embattled Congress, the Awami League is on a firmer wicket in Bangladesh.
Radicalisation has been posing a threat to her government but she has dealt firmly with militancy, winning accolades from across the world.
"The Prime Minister is firmly in the saddle and has the party's full support.
"Besides, the BNP is in disarray. But she is ageing and must have a succession plan ready," a government official said.
Several party insiders told this newspaper they were happy at the inclusion of Joy and Bobby among the national council delegates and expected key roles for both.
"Their entry has been gradual and we think the timing is right. The party ranks are very happy," said Sufi Faruq Ibne Abubakar, the party's science and technology secretary in Kushtia district.
