Dhaka: In what could mark one of the most dramatic political comebacks in South Asia, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is set to return to the electoral battlefield. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), now widely seen as the frontrunner to reclaim power, on Monday announced that its chairperson will contest the upcoming national elections—her first in over a decade.
Bangladesh has been under an interim administration led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus since the Sheikh Hasina government was toppled on August 5, 2024, following nationwide protests over the controversial public job quota system. The political vacuum has reignited old rivalries and opened the door for Zia’s return to center stage.
The BNP unveiled a list of probable candidates for 237 constituencies, with Zia nominated from Bogura-7, Dinajpur-3, and Feni-1—a signal of her intent to reclaim her political bastion. Her son and acting BNP chairman Tarique Rahman will contest from Bogura-6 (Sadar), a key constituency once represented by his mother.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is set to contest from Dinajpur-3 constituency, while the party’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman has been nominated for Bogura-6 in the upcoming national election in February.
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“Today, we are announcing the names of probable candidates for 237 constituencies,” said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, as quoted by the Dhaka Tribune. “We’ll now consult our alliance partners and finalize nominations. Some names may still change.”
Bogura—birthplace of the late President Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda’s husband and BNP founder—remains a symbolic fortress for the party.
Zia, now in her late 70s, had spent years imprisoned under Hasina’s Awami League government on corruption charges before being released shortly after Hasina’s ouster. Her frail health and previous travel restrictions for medical treatment had kept her out of active politics for years.
Her son Tarique Rahman, 59, has lived in London since 2008. He was recently acquitted of a life sentence imposed in absentia for his alleged involvement in the 2004 grenade attack on a Hasina-led rally—a verdict the BNP has long called politically motivated.
The rivalry between Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina—two women who have dominated Bangladeshi politics for decades—traces back to the 1975 coup that claimed the life of Bangladesh’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. After the upheaval, Ziaur Rahman rose to power and founded the BNP, only to be assassinated in 1981, paving the way for Khaleda’s ascent.
Now, with Hasina ousted and the political tides shifting once again, Khaleda Zia’s return to the polls could redefine Bangladesh’s political future—rekindling one of South Asia’s fiercest and longest-running rivalries.
