After a long, bruising and politically defining journey, Tarique Rahman has formally assumed the chairmanship of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), a moment that brings both closure and renewal to the country’s principal opposition as it braces for a decisive electoral contest next month.

The BNP’s National Standing Committee unanimously elevated its Acting Chairman to the party’s highest office in line with the party constitution, following the death of Chairperson and former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia.

Announced late on Friday night, the decision formally sealed a leadership transition that had long been anticipated within the party.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir confirmed the appointment after an emergency meeting of the Standing Committee, convened at 9pm and presided over by Tarique Rahman himself. He said the committee expressed full confidence in the transition and offered prayers for the new chairman’s success at what he described as a critical juncture for the party.

Senior leaders present included Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Salahuddin Ahmed, Selima Rahman and Hafizuddin Ahmed.

A transition long in the making

Tarique Rahman’s elevation is less a sudden ascent than the culmination of a prolonged process of political consolidation. Since 2018, he has effectively steered the BNP as Acting Chairman, particularly after Khaleda Zia was imprisoned on corruption charges—cases the party has consistently dismissed as politically motivated.

Born on 20 November 1965, Tarique Rahman previously served as the BNP’s Senior Vice-Chairman and Senior Joint Secretary. As the elder son of party founder President Ziaur Rahman and Khaleda Zia, his political rise has been inseparable from the party’s legacy—offering both authority and burden, inheritance and resistance.

Politics under pressure

Analysts view Tarique Rahman’s political trajectory as a reflection of Bangladesh’s opposition politics over the past decade and a half, where dynastic leadership, legal pressure and constrained political space have collided repeatedly.

Following the BNP’s loss of state power in 2008, Tarique emerged as a focal point of legal action and sustained political pressure. Periods of detention, followed by prolonged exile in London, forced a fundamental recalibration of his leadership style. Cut off from street mobilisation and public rallies, he turned instead to remote command, decentralised organisation and strategic oversight from abroad.

During these years, the BNP navigated institutional marginalisation, electoral exclusion and internal restructuring. Yet even in physical absence, Tarique’s authority remained unmistakable—shaping strategy, influencing candidate selection and holding together a party tested by attrition.

A legacy forged early

Tarique Rahman’s political consciousness was formed unusually early. As a child, he witnessed the upheavals of the Liberation War.

When President Ziaur Rahman proclaimed Bangladesh’s independence in March 1971 and launched the resistance, Tarique, his mother and brother were detained alongside families of Bengali military officers. They were released only after victory on 16 December 1971, making him one of the youngest civilian detainees of the war.

Party leaders often point to this formative episode as the moment his personal fate became inseparably bound to the political destiny of the nation.

Exile, return and loss

The years between 2008 and 2025 constitute the most painful chapter of Tarique Rahman’s life. Exile in London, while politically unavoidable, carried a heavy emotional toll. Separated from party workers, childhood companions and an increasingly frail mother, he led from afar, bearing the quiet weight of distance and deferred belonging.

His return to Bangladesh on 25 December 2025 was historic. Dhaka saw vast crowds gather to welcome a leader unseen for years. Yet celebration quickly gave way to mourning. Within days, Begum Khaleda Zia died in an ICU bed—her son having returned home only just in time to say farewell.

For BNP supporters, the timing became a symbol of exile’s cruelty: return permitted only after irreversible loss.

Continuity amid uncertainty

For 42 years, Khaleda Zia was the BNP’s guiding force—the party’s longest-serving chairperson and the first woman to lead Bangladesh as prime minister. Her death created a vacuum that only her son, deeply embedded in the party’s organisational memory and political inheritance, could credibly fill.

Tarique Rahman’s assumption of the chairmanship speaks not only to personal endurance, but to the BNP’s strategic reliance on continuity in a restricted political environment. As the party confronts a decisive electoral moment, his leadership will determine whether years of resistance can be converted into renewed political relevance.

For supporters, his journey is one of resilience, sacrifice and remembrance. For critics, it revives questions about dynastic politics. For Bangladesh, it marks the opening of a new—and uncertain—chapter in opposition leadership.

Challenges ahead

With Rahman now formally at the helm, the BNP faces the formidable task of translating prolonged endurance into electoral momentum. His chairmanship unfolds amid a rapidly evolving political landscape, shaped by the emergence of new actors, including Islamist and faith-based forces. In a Muslim-majority society where religious sentiment is expected to exert growing influence, opposition politics is becoming increasingly fragmented and competitive.

As voter alignments shift and political boundaries are redrawn, Tarique Rahman’s stewardship will be closely scrutinised—both as a test of the BNP’s adaptability and as an indicator of whether Bangladesh’s main opposition can reassert itself as a central force within a tightly regulated political system.