Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma on Saturday met BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman, a day after the party officially elected him to the position ahead of the scheduled February 12 elections.
“The meeting lasted for some 40 minutes,” Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) media cell spokesman Sayrul Kabir Khan told PTI, calling it a courtesy call.
BNP emerged as the forerunner in Bangladesh politics, with its once crucial ally, Jamaat-e-Islami, being the main rival, ahead of the scheduled February 12 elections, in the absence of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s now disbanded Awami League.
A student-led violent street movement toppled the Awami League government on August 5, 2024, while the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government disbanded the party in an executive order last year, debarring it from contesting the elections.
Rahman has been steering BNP as its acting chairman since 2018.
The party’s policy-making standing committee on Friday night formally elected him as the party chief 10 days after his mother, BNP Chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia, died following prolonged illness. Pakistan High Commissioner to Bangladesh Imran Haider on Friday also met Rahman hours before he was made the BNP Chairman.Rahman was in self-exile in London for 17 years and returned home on December 25.
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