Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (aka Mujibur) and his Awami League won a landslide victory in the 1973 Bangladeshi general election. However, Mujib had a hard time fighting with corruption within his own government and the leftist insurgency caused by the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal. In the face of growing unrest, on 28 December 1974 Mujibur declared a state of emergency.[5] He pushed the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution through parliament on 25 January 1975. The amendment was passed in the Parliament unanimously. It dissolved all political parties, including the ruling party Awami League, and gave him the authority to form a national party called 'Bangladesh Krishak Shramik Awami League' or shortened as 'BaKSAL'.[6] All the MPs and political parties were required to join the party to fight the prevalent crisis. In many ways, BakSAL had striking similarities with the National Union Party formed at the height of the American Civil War.

On 24 February 1975, Mujibur formed a new party, the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (BaKSAL), which all MPs were required to join.[7][8] Any MP who missed a parliamentary session, abstained, or failed to vote with the party would lose their seat.[9] All civilian government employees, professionals, and trade union leaders were pressed to join the party.[7] All other political organizations were banned.[9] Most Awami League politicians and many from other parties joined BaKSAL, seeing no other way to retain any political power.[7] The Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal, Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party, Purbo Bangla Sammobadi Dal-Marxbadi-Leninbadi (East Bengal Communist Party Marxist–Leninist), East Pakistan Communist Party, and Bangladesh Communist Party (Leninist) did not join BaKSAL.

BaKSAL was scheduled to officially replace the nation's other political organizations, and associations, on 1 September 1975.

Organizationally, President Mujibur Rahman, BaKSAL chairman, appointed for the national party a fifteen-member executive committee, a 120-member central committee, and five front organizations, namely, Jatiya Krishak League, Jatiya Sramik League, Jatiya Mahila League, Jatiya Juba League and Jatiya Chhatra League (peasants, workers, women, youth, and students respectively).[10] All members of the executive committee and central committee were to enjoy the status of ministers. BaKSAL was also designed to overhaul the administrative system of the country to make it people-oriented.

Restrictive regulations originating from BaKSAL included the promulgation of the Newspaper Ordinance (June 1975; Annulment of Declaration). Under this, the declarations of all but four state-owned newspapers were annulled. Only the Dainik Bangla, Bangladesh Observer, The Daily Ittefaq, and Bangladesh Times were allowed to continue, with the rest of the press and newspaper industries banned. The intention was to bring the entire news media under temporary governmental control as a means of combating the prevalent smuggling and black-marketing of newsprint paper. This smuggling activity prevented Bangladesh from exporting the paper to foreign countries, cutting off revenue which could have helped prevent the Bangladesh famine of 1974.

As a greater effort to decentralize the authority, 61 district governors were appointed with training for governorship—quite unprecedented in the history of Bangladesh. The local elections were also peaceful and free. In the Kishorganj local election held in 1975, a school teacher won against the nephew of Syed Nazrul Islam, who was a national leader and also a major leader of BakSAL that time.

The BaKSAL was set to be effective from September 1975. But with the Assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members, the party went into dissolution.

The party contested in 1986 general election using "boat" symbol and later in 1991 general election using "bicycle" symbol. The party carried out independently until 1990s, when almost all of its party leaders deserted the organization to merge with the Bangladesh Awami League.[11]

Lawrence Lifschultz wrote in the Far Eastern Economic Review in 1974 that Bangladeshis thought that "the corruption and malpractices and plunder of national wealth" was "unprecedented".[12] Many of BakSAL's goals were adopted by the successors of Mujib. For example, President Ziaur Rahman launched a crackdown on JASAD (Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal) and successfully banished the left-wing insurgency in the country.