Khaleda Zia’s big comeback! Ex-Bangladesh PM to battle for power after Hasina’s fall

The South Asian nation has been navigating a prolonged political crisis since the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government was ousted amid massive protests over a public job quota system on August 5, 2024. An interim administration headed by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus has since been running the country.

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The BNP on Monday unveiled a list of probable candidates for 237 constituencies, naming Zia as a contender from Bogura-7, Dinajpur-3, and Feni-1.

The party also announced that its acting chairman and Zia’s son, Tarique Rahman, will contest from Bogura-6 (Sadar), a politically significant constituency once represented by his mother.

Bogura, the birthplace of the late President Ziaur Rahman, remains a BNP stronghold.

“Today we are announcing the names of probable candidates for 237 constituencies,” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters, as quoted by the Dhaka Tribune. “We will now hold discussions with our alliance partners and finalize candidates for the remaining seats. Some announced constituencies may be revised. This is a list of probable nominees.”

Zia, who has faced severe health issues following years of imprisonment under the Awami League government on corruption charges, was released from prison shortly after Hasina’s ouster. During Hasina’s tenure, Zia had been barred from travelling abroad for medical treatment.

Her son Tarique Rahman, 59, has been living in London since 2008. He was recently acquitted of a life sentence handed down in absentia for his alleged role in the 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally attended by Hasina — a charge the BNP had long dismissed as politically motivated.

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The decades-old rivalry between Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina dates back to the assassination of Bangladesh’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family during a 1975 coup. Following the upheaval, Ziaur Rahman, then deputy army chief, assumed power and later founded the BNP. His assassination in 1981 paved the way for Khaleda Zia to take over the party’s leadership, shaping one of South Asia’s most enduring political rivalries.