Bobby Hajjaj
Bobby Hajjaj is a Bangladeshi politician. Hajjaj is the founder and chairman of the political party Nationalist Democratic Movement(NDM) who is currently a member of Bangladesh Nationalist Party. He is also an academic, and spearheaded a citizen empowerment movement called Shopner Desh.
Early life and family
Bobby Hajjaj was born on 7 April 1974 to an elite Bengali family in Dacca, Bangladesh, where he was raised. His father, Moosa Bin Shamsher, is a business tycoon regarded as the founder of the labor export industry, which along with the readymade garments export industry, have been the bastion of Bangladesh's economic success. The family are originally from the village of Qazikanda in Faridpur District. His grandfather, Shamsher Ali Mollah, was a graduate of the University of Calcutta and an education officer in Faridpur during British rule. Hajjaj's paternal forefathers were Mullahs, Islamic preachers, by vocation. Hajjaj's mother, Kaniz Fatema Chowdhury, was the daughter of Abu Naser Chowdhury, the final Zamindar of Dulai in Pabna District. His maternal forefathers had migrated from Samarkand, Turkestan in the 18th century. Hajjaj has two siblings. His sister Nancy Zahara is an entrepreneur and married to Sheikh Fazle Fahim of the Sheikh family of Tungipara.Education and career
He completed his initial schooling from Maple Leaf International School. He pursued higher education overseas, graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in the 1990s with a degree in political science. During his undergraduate years, he wrote for the university's student newspaper, he also worked in multiple state senate and gubernatorial election campaigns. He later advanced his academic journey by earning an MBA from the University of Oxford. After graduation, he worked in the financial industry in the US for a year before returning to Bangladesh. Upon return, he started work in business development and became a regular op-ed contributor to a few national English dailies, which included The Daily Star.From 2003, onward, he spent three years mostly outside Bangladesh engaged in business development and strategy consultancy in the US, Europe, and the Middle East.
Since late 2009, Hajjaj has been stationed in Bangladesh. After his return, he worked as a lecturer and researcher in business strategy at North South University, and as a columnist with The Independent, until late 2013. Currently, he contributes to the op-ed column in Dhaka Tribune, speaking on social and political issues.
In late 2015, he launched a citizen empowerment movement ShopnerDesh through which he worked with youth all over the nation on issues including education, mass urbanization, and radicalism of youth.
Political career
Jatiyo Party
- 2012: Appointment as former president Hussain Muhammad Ershad's special adviser
- 2013: Jatiya Party and Ershad publicly confirms Hajjaj's role as special adviser.
- 2014: Hajjaj received a lot of media attention for criticizing the controversial 2014 Bangladeshi general election in which the ruling party Awami League's primary opposition party BNP did not take part. He was detained by Rapid Action Battalion officials for 20 hours, in late 2013; right before the 2014 elections. According to Hajjaj, Ershad had appealed to withdraw his candidature but it was not accepted without any apparent reason.
- 2015: Announced independent candidacy for 2015 Dhaka North City Corporation mayoral elections on 21 March 2015.
- 2017: On 24 April 2017 he officially launched his political party Nationalist Democratic Movement.
2015 Dhaka North City Corporation mayoral election
On 21 March 2015, Hajjaj declared his mayoral candidacy for the April North Dhaka City Corporation polls as an independent candidate. "I am declaring myself an independent candidate for the upcoming Dhaka North City Corporation polls as it is a non-partisan election. I was born in Faridpur. So, I want to take care of the capital," said Hajjaj while announcing his candidacy. He withdrew from the race on 9 April.Nationalist Democratic Movement – NDM
The Nationalist Democratic Movement – NDM was established on 24 April 2017 with the sole purpose of returning the power of government to the hands of the citizenry. It is a broad based party that practices inclusive politics and champions democracy and citizen's rights, and our inherent national values. NDM stands on the four unshakable pillars of Bangladeshi nationalism, religious values, spirit of independence, and accountable democracy, to build the nation of the people's dreams and to fulfill the dreams of Bangladesh's valiant freedom fighters.July–August 2024
Bobby Hajjaj long had been a vocal critic of the government and advocate for democratic reform even before the July 2024 uprising. Since the early 2010s, he emerged as a prominent public commentator and campaigner—initially through his citizen‑empowerment initiative Shopner Desh and later as the founder and chairman of the Nationalist Democratic Movement (NDM)—consistently challenging authoritarianism, calling for electoral accountability, education reform, and youth participation in governance.During the July–August 2024 mass uprising, Hajjaj played both symbolic and active roles as an academic and protest ally. As a faculty member at North South University, he joined private university students on the streets in mid‑July, helping lead blockades and urging civil resistance when police confronted demonstrators—he even pledged to take the first bullet if violence broke out. He also spoke in solidarity with teachers’ protests and student demands, and continued afterwards to frame the uprising as a generational call for an accountable interim government.
In the aftermath of the July–August 2024 revolution, Bobby Hajjaj became the first political figure to formally initiate legal action against Sheikh Hasina. On 3 September 2024, he filed a writ petition in Bangladesh’s High Court urging the Anti-Corruption Commission to launch a formal investigation into allegations that Hasina, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and her niece Tulip Siddiq had embezzled approximately US $5 billion from the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project through offshore accounts in Malaysia. This legal action spurred the ACC to take up the case, which led to an official inquiry by December 2024, making it one of the first high-profile corruption cases pursued after the regime change
Bangladesh Nationalist Party
Bobby Hajjaj resigned and left his party National Democratic Movement(NDM) and joined BNP and announced his nomination for MP in Dhaka-13 Constituency