Tarique Rahman, the exiled acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has announced his imminent return to Bangladesh to contest the country’s upcoming February elections, declaring his party poised to win a sweeping parliamentary majority.
In his first in-person English-language interview, granted to the Financial Times, Tarique said the student-led revolution that ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024 would remain incomplete without a “free and credible” election, and insisted the BNP was ready to govern alone.
“We are confident we will win,” Tarique said. “We strongly believe that we are in the position to form the government alone. I think the time is very close for my return to Bangladesh.”
Tarique, 59, has lived in self-imposed exile in the UK since 2008, avoiding corruption charges he claims were politically motivated during Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule, a period widely criticised for authoritarianism, extrajudicial killings, and the suppression of dissent.
Hasina, now in exile in India, led the Awami League, which has been banned from political activity by Bangladesh’s current interim administration under Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Polls indicate the BNP is the clear frontrunner ahead of the February vote, with Tarique widely expected to emerge as the prime ministerial candidate. He echoed Yunus’s characterisation of the Awami League as “fascist” and expressed openness to forming a coalition with new political forces, particularly student groups that spearheaded last year’s mass uprising.
“We will welcome them into politics,” Tarique said. “They are young, they have a future.”
Economic and foreign policy vision
Facing a fragile economy, hit by US tariffs on garment exports and dwindling foreign reserves, Tarique outlined an ambitious economic agenda.
He proposed transforming Bangladesh into a regional “supply hub” for global e-commerce giants like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba to diversify beyond ready-made garments, which account for over 80 per cent of exports.
On foreign policy, he pledged a “Bangladesh before all” approach toward India, which historically supported Hasina’s government. “The relationship has been one-sided for too long,” he said. “We need to reset it on equal terms.”
Controversial past, defiant defence
Tarique’s return comes amid lingering questions about the BNP’s own record. During its last term in power (2001–2006), Bangladesh was ranked the world’s most corrupt country for five consecutive years by Transparency International. A leaked 2008 US diplomatic cable described Rahman as “a symbol of kleptocratic government and violent politics,” accusing him of routinely demanding bribes.
When pressed on this legacy, Rahman acknowledged that “any government has some flaws” but defended his party’s anti-corruption credentials, noting it established the Anti-Corruption Commission. He dismissed the US cable as based on “false narratives” propagated by “biased media” and pointed out that all legal cases against him have since been dropped.
On the fate of the banned Awami League, Tarique remained ambiguous. “If they are convicted as criminals, then how can the Awami League… contest the election?” he said, referring to ongoing prosecutions of former officials accused of looting billions from state coffers—a recovery effort the interim government has prioritised.
A nation at a crossroads
Bangladesh’s political landscape remains shaped by a decades-old dynastic rivalry: Sheikh Hasina, daughter of founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, versus the Zia family—Tarique Rahman and his late mother, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. Both founding fathers were assassinated in military coups in the 1970s and 1980s.
Now, as the country prepares for its most consequential election in a generation, Rahman’s promised return marks a dramatic turn in a turbulent democratic transition—one that could either break the cycle of retribution or reignite old divisions.
“The people have spoken,” Tarique said. “Now, they deserve a government that serves them—not a dynasty.”