BNP standing committee meeting to be held tonight to ‘relieve’ Tarique

Staff Correspondent

An emergency meeting of the National Standing Committee of the BNP has been called to decide on declaring acting chairman Tarique Rahman as the full chairman of the party.

The meeting will be held at the BNP Chairperson’s political office in Gulshan on Friday, January 9 at 9:30 pm. Tarique Rahman himself will preside over the meeting.

Party standing committee member Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku confirmed the matter and said that a meeting of the standing committee has been called for the night. However, he did not comment in detail on the agenda of the meeting.

Party sources said that in the current political reality, the issue of declaring Tarique Rahman as the full-fledged chairman of BNP could be an important topic of discussion at the meeting. The post of BNP chairman has been vacant since the death of Khaleda Zia. Tarique Rahman is currently serving as the acting chairman.

According to Rule 7(f) of the Rules of Conduct for Political Parties and Candidates in Parliamentary Elections-2025, a candidate nominated by a registered political party can only use the photograph of his current party leader in campaign materials.

For this reason, those concerned believe that it is significant for the BNP to clarify the official identity of the party chief.

Earlier, on January 4, at a meeting with journalists in Sylhet, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, “Tarique Rahman will be elected as the party chairman within a day or two.”

Since his statement, discussions within the party have intensified regarding the schedule for the official announcement.

According to the BNP constitution, if the chairman’s post becomes vacant, the acting chairman automatically assumes the role. As such, although Tarique Rahman is the de facto head of the party, he has not yet been officially declared as the ‘chairman’ by the party and this title is not being used in campaign activities.

As a result, there is some uncertainty within the party about whose images will be used on candidates’ banners, festoons, and leaflets in the context of the upcoming parliamentary elections.

A source related to the party media said that several members of the standing committee have requested Tarique Rahman to take charge as the full chairman. However, he is keen to take decisions by giving importance to the opinions and suggestions of the grassroots leaders and activists. He has always given importance to such collective opinions when taking leadership.

Incidentally, after Khaleda Zia was imprisoned on February 8, 2018, Tarique Rahman was nominated as the acting chairman of BNP. Since then, the party has been run under his leadership for a long time. Although Khaleda Zia was conditionally released on March 25, 2020 during the Corona period, she remained away from active politics.

Although he was released after a political turnaround on August 5, 2024, he did not return to party activities. After his death on December 30 of this year, the question of formalizing the leadership in BNP came to the fore again.