Dhaka: Tarique Rahman, who lived in London in self-exile for 17 years, has emerged as the new face of Bangladesh, with the party founded by his father set to return to power after a 20-year gap.
The 60-year-old leader’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has bagged 209 out of 297 seats, while right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami, known to be close to Pakistan, secured 68 seats. The Awami League party of Hasina was barred from contesting the elections, which recorded 59.44 per cent voter turnout.
The result is a major turnaround for the BNP, long targeted under the 15-year rule of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government which collapsed following nationwide student-led protests in August 2024.
The BNP was founded by Rahman’s father Ziaur Rahman, a military ruler turned politician. The party was led by his mother Khaleda Zia for nearly four decades after the assassination of President Ziaur Rahman in 1981.
Five days after his return to Bangladesh amid a massive welcome in December last year, Rahman was struck by a personal tragedy as Khaleda Zia died after a prolonged illness.
Rahman became the chairman of the BNP in the absence of his mother at a time when the party was facing a state of political wilderness ahead of the polls.
The evolving scenario did not allow him to spend some private days amid personal loss, as events unfolded so quickly, he scarcely had time to reflect.
Rahman is widely seen as a product of dynastic politics, but his family’s political background earned him a sort of acumen. He is credited with manoeuvring his party in a complicated scenario to ensure its key stake in the politics ahead of the general elections.
A soft-spoken Rahman drew massive crowds as he spearheaded the campaign for his party.
Since his return, Rahman noticeably adopted an approach of avoiding inflammatory rhetoric and calling instead for restraint and reconciliation despite the bitter relations of his family and himself in particular with the deposed Awami League regime. BNP eventually won the landslide victory, and Rahman is set to be the next prime minister.
Rahman was born on November 20, 1965, in Dhaka. As a boy, he witnessed Bangladesh’s liberation struggle in 1971. He was arrested along with his mother and brother, only to be released on December 16, 1971, when Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan.
He studied international relations at the University of Dhaka, dropped out, and later started businesses in textiles and agro products. He was elected Senior Vice-Chairman of the BNP in 2009 and gradually became involved in the party’s reorganisation.
Under the Awami League rule, Rahman became a central target of several corruption and criminal cases. He was convicted in absentia in some of the cases. He was sentenced to life in connection with a 2004 grenade attack on Hasina’s rally that killed 24 people and wounded dozens.
He has always denied the allegations, calling them politically motivated. He was acquitted in all cases during Muhammad Yunus’ interim rule following Hasina’s ouster.
In 2018, when Khaleda Zia was jailed on graft charges, Rahman was nominated as the Acting Chairman of the party. After her death, he became the chairman.
According to analysts, the election results marked a remarkable reversal of fortune for Rahman, who left the country in 2008, saying he needed medical treatment after his release from detention under a military-backed caretaker administration.
Yet, they said uneasy doubts and speculations accompanied the enthusiasm.
“I have a plan for the people of my country and for my country,” Rahman said, hours after his return to Bangladesh in December, referring to US civil rights activist Martin Luther King’s remark, “I have a dream.”
He later gradually unfolded the plan, pledging to recalibrate Bangladesh’s international partnerships to attract investment without tying the country too closely to any single power.
He aims to expand financial aid for poor families, offering “family cards”, reduce reliance on garment exports by promoting industries such as toys and leather goods, and introduce a two-term or 10-year limit for prime ministers to deter autocratic tendencies.
In several interactions, Rahman acknowledged that the task ahead of him in the country of 170 million people would be daunting, with the recovery of a shattered economy being a key challenge.
Several analysts and observers said the lack of discipline within the BNP poses a major challenge for him. During the past 18 months, party activists largely earned a bad reputation in general for extorting and seizing the businesses of political opponents.
Media reports said BNP expelled some 10,000 of its activists during the past 18 months, while they were also accused of harassing rivals by lodging fake criminal cases.
In past decades, critics and opponents widely viewed Rahman as a brash operator during the BNP’s 2001-2006 rule under his mother’s premiership. Despite having no government position, he was accused of running a parallel power centre, a charge which, however, he denies.
But several observers said he reappeared in the political arena after spending 17 years in a country where he witnessed the governance of an advanced democracy, largely as a changed person.
“This is not that Tarique we heard of or seen before,” said a minority Hindu community leader, preferring anonymity as he talked to him for over an hour two weeks ago, when he cracked sophisticated jokes and explained his vision for the country.
Rahman married cardiologist Dr Zubaida Rahman, the daughter of a former navy chief, in 1994. They have a daughter named Zaima Zarnaz Rahman.
PTI
