Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 13: Mr Tarique Rahman-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was heading for a landslide victory in the Bangladesh general elections after it zoomed past the simple majority mark following the voting held on Thursday.
Though the final official results were yet to be declared for some of the seats, the BNP and its allies are claimed to have already secured 212 seats in the 300-member Parliament while its main challenger the Jamaat-e-Islami and its 11 allies have managed to get just 77 seats, according to official sources. The results have been withheld for two seats over legal issues.
Most voters also backed the reforms proposal under the July National Charter as voting on Thursday was also held for the national referendum to decide if the July National Charter, which proposes constitutional reforms, will be adopted or not.
Returning to power after nearly two decades and positioning party leader Tarique Rahman to become Prime Minister as the country emerges from months of unrest and economic disruption, the BNP immediately afterwards reiterated its firm stance on seeking the extradition of the ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina from India to face trial.
“The Foreign Minister has already persuaded the case for her extradition, and we also support it,” Senior BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed said. “We always press for her extradition according to the law. This is between the Foreign Ministries of the two countries. We also asked the government of India to please send her back to face trial in Bangladesh,” he added.
Reacting to Bangladesh demand under a bilateral extradition treaty, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said, “We have received the request and it is being examined as part of ongoing judicial and internal legal processes.” “We remain committed to the best interest of the people of Bangladesh, and to peace, democracy, inclusion and stability in that country. We will continue to engage constructively in this regard with all stakeholders,” Jaiswal said in the presser.
Sheikh Hasina, who has been living in exile in New Delhi since her ouster, was sentenced to death in absentia by a special tribunal in November 2025 on charges of crimes against humanity linked to the violent crackdown during the 2024 unrest. Since leaving office, Hasina has largely remained out of the public spotlight in New Delhi, aside from occasional statements and reported sightings at Lodhi Garden. In January 2026, however, she drew sharp reactions in Dhaka after delivering an address from Delhi calling on citizens to rise up against the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus.
The current Bangladesh election was seen as a direct contest between the BNP and its former ally, Jamaat-e-Islami, in the absence of Sheikh Hasina’s now disbanded Awami League. The Muhammad Yunus-led interim government has been in place for 18 months now. Voting for the 13th parliamentary elections was held alongside a referendum on the implementation of a complex 84-point reform package known as the July National Charter. The BNP had earlier announced that if it won the election, its chairman and former premier, Khaleda Zia’s son, Tarique Rahman, would be the next prime minister of Bangladesh.
Tarique Rahman has won from Dhaka-17 and Bogra-6 seats. Several senior leaders including Salahuddin Ahmed, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Lutfozzaman Babar, Mirza Abbas, Reza Kibria and others have secured seats.
Prominent Jamaat figures such as Shafiqur Rahman, Mir Ahmad Bin Kasem, ATM Azharul Islam and others have won their constituencies. The National Citizen Party (NCP) that emerged from the student-led July uprising, has won six seats. One of its prominent leader Md Nahid Islam secured Dhaka-11 by a narrow margin of 2,039 votes.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Tarique Rahman after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party swept the national elections on Friday. The Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge also congratulated Rahman on behalf of the party and said India and Bangladesh share deep rooted bonds of history, language, culture, and multitude of other commonalities. 8. The United States also congratulated the Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Tarique Rahman on its “historic victory” in elections, its embassy in Dhaka said.
Independent candidate Rumeen Farhana, who won from the Brahmanbaria-2 seat has alleged that leaders of the BNP contacted her even before the official election results. “They contacted me when they realised I was certainly going to win the election as an independent candidate. They suggested it would be good to sit together and even hinted that I could get something bigger than an MP post. I declined,” she claimed. She was one of the seven women candidates who secured have secured seats in the Bangladesh parliament.