Bangladesh PM frontrunner faces unusual challenge: Father's achievements

New Delhi,UPDATED: Dec 13, 2025 07:44 IST

Finally, Bangladesh has a definite date with national elections — February 12, 2026. One of the most-watched seats is Bogura 6, from where Tarique Rahman, the frontrunner to be the next prime minister of Bangladesh, is contesting. What makes the contest in Bogura 6 especially interesting is that the Bangladesh ist Party (BNP) leader is being confronted with the legacy of his father — Sheikh Ziaur Rahman.

Tarique Rahman is the son of Ziaur Rahman, a person who has a contested legacy. While some perceive Ziaur, the founder of the BNP, as a dictator, others see him as the key military officer who secured Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan.

Abdullah-al-Waki, Tarique's rival in Bogura 6 of the students-led Citizens Party (NCP), has accused the BNP of straying away from the Ziaur Rahman-shown path.

"I cast the first vote of my life for Ziaur Rahman," Waki said in an interview with The Business Standard, the Dhaka-based newspaper. Projecting himself as the true inheritor of Ziaur's politics, Waki is using the Bangladeshi leader's legacy to confront his son.

Ziaur Rahman is a former President of Bangladesh, and was killed in an attempted coup in 1981.

Tarique is the Acting Chairman of the BNP, which surveys show as the party set to win the election in February. With mother and former PM Khaleda Zia on ventilator support, Tarique is the most likely to be the PM if the BNP goes on to win the election.

Over 47% of those surveyed by leading Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo said they believed Tarique Rahman would most likely become the PM.

But Tarique's rival Waki is trying to steal his thunder.

"Ziaur Rahman is not just the property of the BNP, but he's also the Father of the Nation," said Waki in the interview. "The BNP abandoned the ideals of Ziaur the day it entered into an alliance with the Awami League and adopted the same legacy governing systems," he added. In the 1980s, Khaleda Zia-led BNP and Sheikh Hasina's Awami League coordinated

Waki has now entered the political ring by declaring himself and his NCP Party the true inheritors of Ziaur Rahman's legacy, and casting the BNP as an "impostor".

Other than Waki, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami candidate Shafiqur Rahman is contesting from Bogura 6 in northern Bangladesh.

WHO WAS ZIAUR RAHMAN AND HOW HE FORMED THE BNP

Before 1971, Ziaur Rahman was a respected officer in the Pakistan Army and had earned the country's second-highest military decoration for his role in the 1965 India-Pakistan War.

In 1971, Ziaur served as the second in command of the Eighth Bengal Regiment. After Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested and taken to West Pakistan, Ziaur quickly defected to support the liberation struggle in East Pakistan.

He announced the declaration of Independence of Bangladesh on March 27, 1971, and went on to play a key role in the war as a commander in the Mukti Bahini.

After independence, Bangladesh went through years of political turmoil that peaked with the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. Ziaur was placed under house arrest but was later freed and made Chief Martial Law Administrator. In 1977, he became the President of Bangladesh and one of his first steps was to lift martial law.

He won the 1978 presidential election by a large margin and the same year founded the BNP to stabilise the country under a platform of Bengali nationalism. The party formed the government after the 1979 election.

Ziaur was often described as the firm leader the country needed, and he ended the one-party system of Mujibur Rahman, allowed the Awami League to return to politics and introduced broad political and economic reforms.

Some of his decisions created strong opposition within the armed forces, especially his rehabilitation of the men accused of war crimes in 1971 and involvement in the plot against Mujibur Rahman. This led to Ziaur's assassination by veterans of the Mukti Bahini on May 30, 1981.

WHAT'S THE STATUS OF BNP, KHALEDA ZIA, TARIQUE

After the assassination of Ziaur Rahman, his wife Khaleda Zia became the de facto leader of the BNP. She played an important role in opposing the one-party rule imposed by General Mohammed Ershad, who had overthrown the elected government in 1982.

The BNP later joined hands with its long-time rival, the Awami League, and after the mass uprising of 1990, and the election in 1991, Khaleda Zia became Prime Minister. Between 1991 and 2014, Khaleda and the BNP won three national elections, often in alliance, including with the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.

Khaleda Zia is now critically ill and on life support, and the BNP says that Tarique will soon be returning from London, where he has been since 2007, to lead the party. That he is contesting from BNP stronghold Bogura 6, a seat that his mother Khaleda Zia won, is a signal of him taking over the mantle.

"A year or a little over a year ago, I said that the upcoming election is not what many are thinking it will be. Today, slowly, what I said is being proven true. If we still do not get serious, the existence and sovereignty of this country will be at risk. Only democracy can save it," Tarique said, addressing BNP workers on Thursday, after the election date was declared. He added that only the BNP could strengthen democracy in Bangladesh.

His rival, Abdullah-al-Waki, differs. In his interview with The Business Standard of Bangladesh, Waki says Ziaur Rahman is long gone, and the present party is a very different creature.

Bogura 6 is a long-time BNP stronghold. But Abdullah-al-Waki of the NCP is taking him and the BNP using the legacy of Ziaur Rahman. The election in Bangladesh will be a litmus test for the nation, and the Bogura 6 fight will be keenly watched.

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