Bangladesh PM front-runner rejects unity government offer, says his party set to win
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s leading prime ministerial contender, Tarique Rahman, on Friday rejected a proposal from his main rival for a unity government after elections next week, saying his party was confident of winning on its own.
Rahman, 60, who heads the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), returned home in December after nearly two decades in exile in London following a youth-led uprising that toppled long-time leader Sheikh Hasina, a bitter rival of his mother, the country’s first woman Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.
The BNP’s main rival in the February 12 election is the Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami, once banned but now resurgent.
The two parties governed together between 2001 and 2006, and Jamaat has said it is open to renewing the partnership for a unity government to help stabilize the country, whose giant garments industry was badly disrupted by months of turmoil in 2024.
