The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has completed 48 years since its founding. Today, Tuesday, September 1, is the party’s founding anniversary. But this year’s occasion is different from every year before it: for the first time in its long political history, the party is marking its founding anniversary without its former chairperson and prime minister, Begum Khaleda Zia. This is BNP’s first founding anniversary since her death on December 30 last year. Alongside the formal observances, questions about Khaleda Zia’s political legacy — and the party’s path forward without her — have come to the fore.
Then-President Ziaur Rahman founded the Bangladesh Nationalist Party on September 1, 1978. Over more than four decades since, through numerous political ups and downs, the party has grown into one of the country’s leading political forces. From holding state power to long stretches in opposition, through movements and political crises, BNP has been woven through every important chapter of Bangladesh’s political history.
Yet the person who led the party longest across that history is Begum Khaleda Zia. She became actively involved in BNP politics in the 1980s after her husband Ziaur Rahman’s death. On May 10, 1984, she was elected the party’s chairperson unopposed through a council. She went on to lead BNP as its top leader for nearly four decades.
Khaleda Zia’s leadership was established in national politics through the movement against military rule. Her role in the 1990 anti-Ershad movement earned her recognition as an “uncompromising leader.” Following the fall of the Ershad government under the combined pressure of a united political movement, a new chapter began in the country’s democratic politics.
When BNP won the 1991 election, Khaleda Zia took office as the country’s first woman prime minister. Parliamentary government was restored under her administration. She remained at BNP’s helm through the political transitions of 1996 and 2001 as well. When the BNP-led alliance won the 2001 election, she again took charge as head of government.
But Khaleda Zia’s political life was not confined to power and electoral success alone. She also had to navigate long stretches of opposition politics, movements and political adversity. From the political crisis that began after 2007, she faced court cases and imprisonment. After being convicted in “corruption cases” in 2018, her political activity became further restricted. These cases were fabricated and politically motivated, brought by her rival political party.
She was released after Sheikh Hasina fled to India amid the 2024 mass uprising, but ill health kept her from returning to active politics. She died on December 30, 2025, at Evercare Hospital in the capital after a long illness. Her death closed a long chapter in Bangladesh’s politics.
With Khaleda Zia absent, an emotional undertone has naturally colored BNP’s founding anniversary this year. To party leaders and activists, she was more than just chairperson — she was one of the central symbols of the party’s long political movement and organizational unity. Her absence has once again put the question of preserving the party’s unity and organizational strength in sharp focus.
In this context, Tareque Rahman’s leadership carries particular weight in BNP’s politics now. After a long period abroad, his return to the country has raised fresh political expectations within the party. Those close to the party say his major responsibility now is to carry forward Khaleda Zia’s political legacy, strengthen the party’s organizational structure, and hold together the unity of its leaders and activists.
According to political analysts, this year’s founding anniversary offers BNP an opportunity to both commemorate and reorganize. The big question now is how the party moves forward under new leadership, building on founder Ziaur Rahman’s nationalist political philosophy and Khaleda Zia’s long political struggle. Establishing a new balance in organizational discipline and political decision-making in the absence of long-standing leadership has become especially important for BNP.
BNP acting Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said: “BNP’s path forward is the path of democracy shown to us by the mother of democracy and the uncompromising national leader, Begum Khaleda Zia. As long as Bangladesh exists, as long as nationalism exists, the name of national leader Begum Khaleda Zia will be written in letters of gold.”
Over 48 years, BNP has held state power more than once, and has also led various movements from the opposition. Having weathered numerous adversities, the party has built a lasting place in the country’s politics. Along that long path, one of the biggest political chapters after Ziaur Rahman’s founding role was built under Khaleda Zia’s leadership.
This time, that leader is gone. What remains is her political legacy. With that legacy ahead of it, BNP now looks toward a new chapter at its 48th founding anniversary. The founding day is thus not just an occasion to recall past glory, but an important moment for charting the party’s political path in the era after Khaleda Zia.