Bangladesh election results: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Tarique Rahman is all set to be sworn in as the nation’s next prime minister after his party suffered a landslide in the 12th general election..
General elections were held for the first time since a student-led uprising in 2024 that ousted longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and ended her party, the Awami League’s 15-year rule.
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The 60-year-old BNP chairman is poised to inherit a country struggling with high inflation, a weakening currency and youth unemployment at a staggering 14 percent, news agencies from the country in Dhaka reported.
Who is Tariq Rahman?
Tarique Rahman was born on November 20, 1965 in Dacca, East Pakistan, now Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Tarique is a scion of one of Bangladesh’s most prominent political families. His mother Khaleda Zia was a two-time prime minister who died last year. His father, Ziaur Rahman, was a military officer who served as the President of Bangladesh.
Tarique returned to Bangladesh to fight in the December 2025 elections, after more than 17 years of self-imposed exile in London. Took over leadership of BNP from his mother Khaleda Zia, fig Bangladesh politics and long-time political enemy of Hasina. Zia died just five days after Rahman returned home in December.
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In speeches, he vowed to scrap the “true monarchical” executive power his family once thrived on, only for the Awami League’s Hasina – herself the scion of another political dynasty – to consolidate her rule after her 2008 election victory.
From exile to prime ministership
Rahman left Bangladesh for London in 2008 after what he described as political persecution. At the time, Tarique was facing trial on a slew of graft charges.
He left a note at the airport: “I, Tariq Rahman, I hereby declare that as of today, September 11, 2008, I am resigning from the position of Senior Joint General Secretary of the BNP and thereby retiring from active politics.”
Tarique was jailed in 2007 as part of an anti-corruption drive by the military-backed interim government, on charges he denies. He was released in 2008 to seek medical treatment in London after being tortured so badly in prison that he was taken on a plane in a wheelchair.
In 2024, after Hasin’s downfall, the courts overturned his conviction and eventually freed him to return home.
Tarique’s daughter, Zaima, a 30-year-old UK-educated lawyer, encouraged her father’s campaign by visiting the chaotic streets of Dhaka-17 in a rickshaw handing out leaflets. Her political debut was to project a modern image of a party long accused of presiding over a politically violent dynasty.
what does he want to do?
Party insiders cited by Bloomberg said Tarique Rahman wants to steer his party away from Islamist political groups and limit executive power by strengthening the judiciary — an agenda that resonates with student leaders who were instrumental in toppling Hasina, who now lives in exile in India.
Tarique has made several populist promises on welfare — including a promise to introduce a “family card” providing monthly cash handouts to five million low-income households and expanding agricultural subsidies. However, fiscal space to meet these commitments is limited, given the country’s tax-to-GDP ratio of less than 7%, one of the lowest in Asia, Bloomberg reported.
Tarique’s high-octane campaign ahead of the February 12 polls focused largely on domestic issues, appeasing the party’s traditional rural base and cultivating support among educated urban youth who have largely turned against the BNP because of its past violence.
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He signaled a break with Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, which for years provided the BNP with street muscle as an ally. Just days before the election, Tarique rejected Jamaat’s proposal to form a unity government, a move party insiders see as evidence of his efforts to court Western powers and reassure a wary India of his secular image.
What next for India-Bangladesh ties?
New Delhi has already indicated its desire to engage with the new leadership. Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally congratulated Rahman on his “decisive” victory in the X post and expressed his desire to “strengthen our multilateral relations and advance our common development goals”.
During the fifteen years of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League rule in Bangladesh, New Delhi enjoyed friendly relations with Dhaka.
However, ties between New Delhi and Dhaka began to deteriorate soon after the ouster of the Hasina-led group. Awami League regime on 5 August 2024 and subsequent violence against minorities, especially the Hindu community.
As violence ensued across Bangladesh, Hasina fled to India.
Following the August 2024 uprising, violent incidents targeting the Hindu community in Bangladesh were reported, resulting in many deaths and attacks on homes and businesses.
In recent weeks, India has restricted tourist visas for Bangladeshis and has also withdrawn the families of Indian diplomats from Bangladesh, citing security concerns ahead of national elections.
Diplomatic tensions also affected sports ties. Last month, Bangladesh withdrew from Men’s T20 World Cup after the International Cricket Council rejected a request to move their group matches from India to co-hosts Sri Lanka.
But in January, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar met Rahman in Dhaka and brought a message from Modi seeking a “fresh start” for ties.
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Tarique said in his campaign speeches and interviews that he would favor Bangladesh in his foreign relations. “Bangladesh is number one,” he said in an interview with the BBC last year. “I will put the interests of the people of my country and the interests of my nation first.”
I will put the interests of the people of my country and the interests of my nation first.
As the potential leader of South Asia’s second-largest economy — one that conducts military exercises with the US and is a major contributor to UN peacekeeping forces — Rahman would face a delicate balancing act between India, the US and China. It has significantly increased its investment in Bangladesh in recent years as it expands its footprint along the Bay of Bengal.
“India has abandoned negotiations with the Yunus government beyond what is absolutely necessary. The definitive vote and the BNP victory clearly means that Delhi and Dhaka will come to the negotiating table. We will have to wait to see if India-Bangladesh ties are restored,” senior journalist and author Deep Halder told LiveMint on Friday.
(With inputs from Bloomberg)