Tarique Rahman: A striking political debut in Bangladesh’s history Today World News

Tarique Rahman, the chairman of Bangladesh Nationalist Party has said that his party will not hold a victory rally as he appears poised for a historic victory in the crucial election of 2026. Mr. Rahman won two seats — Dhaka-17 and Bogura-6 constituencies making a striking political debut in Bangladesh’s history. Mr. Rahman’s world is set to change and it has taken barely two months for that to happen. He stepped out of the wood paneled VVIP arrival lounge of the Hazrat Shah Jalal International Airport on December 25 2025, and took to the little grassy patch next to the car park and took off his shoes and stepped on the ground.

It was a sign that he had now reconnected with the land of his birth and had finally got himself the political launch that he was denied when Bangladesh spiraled into political uncertainty in late 2006 which prevented him from contesting his first parliamentary election. In the speech delivered after returning from London, he struck an inclusive tone calling for inter-communal and inter-ethnic harmony in Bangladesh and with an eye to his political enemies, got down to dismantling some of the allegations that BNP’s opponents, especially the deposed Awami League had leveled against the party.

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During the period from 2009-’24, Sheikh Hasina had repeatedly described the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Tarique’s mother Khaleda Zia as pro-Pakistan. Ms. Hasina’s criticism was relentless and Mr. Tarique in his speech made it a point to address the allegation first. In the speech delivered in 36 July Expressway, Mr. Tarique invoked BNP’s connection to the liberation war of 1971 and the November 7, 1971 political development that brought his late father General Zia-ur Rahman to de facto power. In the process, Mr. Tarique showed that like Ms. Hasina who played on the story of her father, he too would build on the legends of his father General Zia-ur Rahman who began as a soldier in the Pakistan army and fought against India in 1965 war but defected from the Pakistan military and declared independence of East Pakistan hours after the Pakistan military launched Operation Searchlight on March 25, 1971. In keeping with the tradition, the election campaign of BNP focused on owning both the spirits of the Liberation War of 1971 as well as the anti-Sheikh Hasina movement of July-August 2024.

With his campaign speeches, Mr. Rahman has showed that this time, he has come ready with an  alternate vision for Bangladesh where the earlier regime’s iconography will be challenged by the icons of BNP.

The millions of people who greeted him on December 25 as well as on December 26 might have given him a smooth arrival but the result of the election is bound to create a big challenge for Mr. Rahman in the coming days as the Jamaat-e-Islami has emerged as the second largest party in Bangladesh’s Jatiyo Sansad with the 11-party alliance under Jamaat’s leadership getting at least 71 seats – a historic development on its own. Two months ago, Jamaat-e-Islami’s chief Shafiqur Rahman had said that his party, the largest Islamist party of Bangladesh would “keep an eye” on Mr. Rahman. The comment was particularly significant that by talking about inclusion, Mr. Rahman had conveyed that this time around, unlike his last stint that ended in 2007, he will follow a different trajectory.

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The political trajectory of Mr. Rahman was shaped by the traumatic memories of his childhood. On May 29 1981, when Mr. Rahman was in his teens, his father General Rahman left for the port city of Chittagong for an unscheduled visit. A day later, he was shot and killed in an attempted coup that lasted only three days. General Zia’s mortal remains were brought back to Dhaka and he was given a burial in front of the Parliament. The period after the brutal assassination of General Zia , BNP was energetically led by Khaleda Zia who often wore white and teamed up with arc enemy Sheikh Hasina to challenge military dictator Hossein Mohammed Ershad who was overthrown in the 1990 protest. Khaleda Zia became the first female Prime Minister of Bangladesh by winning election held in 1991. Mr. Tarique Rahman started his formal political journey on June 22, 2002 when BNP appointed him as the first joint secretary.

During this time, Mr. Tarique Rahman earned a name for himself which found mention in the cables of the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka that were released by Wikileaks in 2005. The second coming of Khaleda Zia had coincided with the U.S. war on terror that played out in Af-Pak and significantly impacted the rest of South Asia. Amidst several legacy security issues, the BNP was also accused of hosting the ULFA leadership in Dhaka which gave Bangladesh-India relation under Khaleda Zia a difficult reputation. But the more serious issues that BNP faced came from the allegation of links between some of the top figures of BNP and the extremist Jamaatul Mujahidin Bangladesh led by Bangla Bhai. While JMB was branded a terrorist organisation internationally, Khaleda refused to recognise the links that were reported between a few leaders of her party and the terror group. The U.S. Embassy cable refers to Mr. Tarique Rahman’s “steely nerves” for which he was being recognised inside the party and refers to him as “The Dark Prince”. “Tarique Rahman has the Zia name, political cunning,” said a cable which referred to him as a “uniquely polarizing figure in Bangladeshi politics” and “ruthless”. The U.S. embassy had predicted that Mr. Tarique Rahman was getting ready to contest the 2007 election, but cautioned that he would not get that kind of support within the party if Khaleda Zia pushed hard to for her son to succeed as the next Prime Minister.

In his homecoming speech, Mr. Tarique Rahman referred to the military-backed interim government of President Iazuddin Ahmed who on January 11, 2007 declared emergency in Bangladesh as an “international conspiracy”. The emergency launched a major anti-corruption drive that targeted both Sheikh Hasina as well as Khaleda Zia. It was however the treatment of Mr. Tarique Rahman in the hands of the officials in Bangladesh that generated sympathy for him.

Meeting a foreign diplomat who had visited him in his London flat in 2009, Mr. Rahman had said that he was tortured in custody that left him with a spinal injury that required attention. Thereafter Mr. Rahman remained restricted to London, looking after the works of BNP in the U.K. and talking to his followers through video link while meeting foreign diplomats and visiting politicians from home. With the decline in the health of Khaleda Zia, Mr. Tarique’s place in the party increasingly became clear which was further firmed up as he supported boycott of 2014, 2018 2024 elections as it had demanded that polls should be held under a caretaker government accusing the Hasina regime of being biased

The spectacular welcome given to him has ensured that Mr. Tarique Rahman will be a major player and in the absence of his mother Khaleda Zia the election has given him a clear mandate to take over as the Prime Minister. Post-poll recognition is already pouring in. Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi has congratulated him and the United States has also reached out.

In this backdrop his handling of international issues and especially India’s concerns will be watched keenly. One of the major items that will require his immediate attention is the law and order situation as well as the negotiation for the Ganga Waters Agreement that will have to be negotiated for a renewal later this year. There were fears that the show of public support that was on display on December 25 2025 and subsequently on the passing away of Khaleda Zia, had fizzled out, but the election victory with almost 218 seats has shown that his party has received an absolute majority in the Jatiyo Sansad. However the coming weeks are going to be challenging as BNP will have to deal with the positive outcome to the referendum on ‘July Charter’ that requires BNP to change the constitution of Bangladesh that envisages creating a less powerful post of Prime Minister and transfer some of the powers of the executive powers of the PM to the President’s office. It remains to be seen how Rahman will negotiate with the resurgent Jamaat-e-Islami and students-led party NCP regarding the referendum’s result while he settles down to govern.