Tarique Rahman leads Bangladesh National Party to victory after 20 years Premium

Tarique Rahman celebrates a historic election victory, poised to reshape Bangladesh's political landscape amid challenges from rivals and alliances.

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 constitutuencies 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 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 Ziaur 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 Ziaur 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.