‘BJP’ candidate wins in Bangladesh polls — and no, it’s not the one you’re thinking of

In a ballot-box twist that left many doing a double take, “BJP” has entered Bangladesh’s Parliament — but this is no saffron surge from across the border. 

The acronym may echo India’s political heavyweight, yet in Dhaka it belongs to an entirely different player, delivering one of the election’s most talked-about victories even as the broader contest reshaped the country’s power landscape. 

In Bangladesh’s 13th general elections, the Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) secured a lone parliamentary victory, with Andaleeve Rahman Partho winning the Bhola-1 constituency. Partho polled 105,543 votes, defeating his nearest rival Md Nazrul Islam of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, who secured 75,337 votes, according to official results reported by state news agency BSS. 

The outcome, however, was dominated by the sweeping return to power of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by Tarique Rahman, which won 209 seats. Along with its allies, the BNP secured 212 seats in the 297-member Jatiya Sangsad, re-establishing itself as the central force in the country’s politics. 

Jamaat-e-Islami and its allies captured 77 seats in what were the first general elections held since the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina amid mass protests on August 5, 2024 — a political upheaval now widely referred to as the July-August Uprising. 

Broad contest after a tumultuous period 

The elections marked one of Bangladesh’s most competitive political contests in years. A total of 50 political parties fielded 2,028 candidates, including 273 independents. The BNP ran the largest slate with 291 candidates, while 83 women were among those contesting — a figure analysts say reflects a gradual, though still limited, expansion of female participation in national politics. 

The polls were seen domestically and internationally as a reset moment following the political turbulence that led to Hasina’s removal, with voters navigating a landscape reshaped by protest movements, institutional recalibration, and shifting alliances. 

Man behind the ‘BJP’ Victory 

Despite the BNP’s landslide, Andaleeve Rahman Partho’s win drew outsized attention because of the acronym overlap with India’s Bharatiya Janata Party — a coincidence that quickly trended on social media. 

Partho is a veteran politician, educationist, and lawyer who previously represented the same constituency. He serves as principal of the British School of Law in Dhaka and began his national political career in 2008, when he contested the 9th General Elections from Bhola-1 as part of a four-party alliance, defeating Awami League candidate Yusuf Hossain Humayun. 

Between 2009 and 2014, he was a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Establishment (now the Ministry of Public Administration). He is also the son of former minister and MP Naziur Rahman Manju, underscoring the family’s long-standing political presence in the region. 

BNP chief reacts to return after 20 years 

Following the results, Tarique Rahman welcomed the mandate as a decisive endorsement of democratic restoration and political change. In his reaction issued after the victory, he expressed gratitude to voters and party workers, emphasising national reconciliation, economic stabilisation, and institutional rebuilding as immediate priorities for the incoming government. He also called for inclusive governance, signalling that the BNP intends to position its return as a transition toward political normalcy after a period of unrest.