Preparations are at their peak for BNP's acting chairman, Tarek Rahman's return to Bangladesh. Elections are scheduled in Bangladesh next year, and Khaleda Zia's elder son's return to the country is extremely significant for the political landscape of Bangladesh. Questions were being raised about whether Rahman would at all contest elections, and from which constituency, if he did. Amid all these discussions, top leaders of the Bogura district committee of BNP have collected nomination forms on behalf of Tarek Rahman for the Bogura-6 (Sadar) constituency. This form was collected on Sunday (December 21) afternoon. Party leaders have stated that this nomination form was collected on Tarek's instructions.
Will Tarek Rahman contest from Bogura-6?
District BNP president Rezaul Karim has informed that he will go to Bogura anytime after returning to Bangladesh on December 25, Christmas. It is noteworthy that the Bogura constituency played a significant role in the early days of Rahman's political career in Bangladesh. In 1988, he began his political career as a primary member of the BNP Upazila branch in Gabtali, Bogura.
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Is Khaleda Zia making a comeback?
Significantly, nomination papers have been collected for Khaleda Zia from the Bogura-7 (Gabtali-Shajahanpur) constituency. Khaleda Zia was elected to the national assembly three consecutive times from that constituency. Notably, Tarek Rahman has been managing the operations of BNP from London for a long time. After the army seized power in the bloodless coup on January 11, 2007, Khaleda Zia's son Tarek Rahman was arrested on various corruption charges.
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Tarek Zia's return
It is heard that through the mediation of some influential individuals, the military government released him from prison in 2008 and allowed him to flee abroad with his wife and daughter. There was speculation that he had given an undertaking stating he would never return to politics. However, after going to London, he became active in politics again. He has been managing party responsibilities virtually all this time. After Sheikh Hasina's Awami League government was ousted from power on August 5 last year, the BNP-supported interim government overturned Tarek Rahman Zia's conviction sentences in various cases. But he did not return to the country. Recently, Khaleda Zia had fallen ill, and it was after this that he decided to return to Bangladesh.
