Tarique Rahman to visit Bogura next Sunday
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) acting chairman Tarique Rahman will visit Bogura next Sunday.
According to Bogura district BNP’s Rezaul Karim (Badsha), he will arrive on a tour of his ancestral district after 19 years.
This will also be his first trip outside Dhaka since returning to the country after over 15 years in exile in London.
In the upcoming 13th parliamentary election, Tarique Rahman is contesting for the first time as BNP’s candidate from the Bogura-6 (Sadar) constituency. He is also the party’s candidate for Dhaka-17.
Tarique's father, BNP founder and former president Ziaur Rahman, had his ancestral home in Gabtali, Bogura. From 1991 to 2008, in every national election, the party’s late chairperson Khaleda Zia contested from Bogura-7 and won each time by a wide margin.
According to party sources, Tarique Rahman last visited Bogura in 2006.
Speaking to Prothom Alo about the upcoming trip, Bogura district BNP president Rezaul Karim said, “On the morning of 11 January, BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman will depart from his residence in Gulshan for Bogura. Upon arrival, he will stay there overnight. The following day, he will take part in a public prayer ceremony organised by Bogura district BNP for the late party chairperson’s soul. After that, he will travel by road from Bogura to Rangpur, where he will visit the grave of July martyr Abu Sayed.”
Bogura district BNP’s acting general secretary Mosharraf Hossain said, “Whether Tarique Rahman will visit the grave of July martyr Abu Sayed in Rangpur on Sunday afternoon upon arriving in Bogura, or travel to Rangpur the following day after completing the programmes in Bogura, will be confirmed this afternoon from the Gulshan office. The public prayer ceremony for the soul of the late party chairperson, organised by Bogura district BNP, will be held at Bogura’s historic Altafunnesha playground.”
Party sources say that until 2008, the BNP candidate won every national parliamentary election in Bogura-6. Among them, Khaleda Zia served as the member of parliament four times between 1996 and 2008.
In 2014, Nurul Islam of Jatiya Party won the seat unopposed. In the 2018 election, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was victorious; however, as he did not take the oath, BNP’s Golam Md. Siraj won the subsequent by-election.
Later, following a party decision to resign, another by-election was held, in which Bogura district Awami League general secretary Ragebul Ahsan emerged victorious. He also won the 2024 election.