Tarique Rahman’s return to Bangladesh on December 25, 2025, was nothing short of cinematic; he was accompanied by his ginger cat, who is a viral sensation too

Long overshadowed by the towering legacies of his parents and having spent nearly two decades in the political wilderness of London after grave corruption charges forced him out of Dhaka, Tarique Rahman has finally stepped into the centre of the Bangladeshi stage.At 60, the chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is poised to become the next prime minister of a nation of 170 million people following a sweeping victory in the first parliamentary elections since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, who is now in self-exile in India.

His ascent marks a dramatic turnaround for a man once labeled by US diplomats as a "symbol of kleptocratic government" and a "flawed heir apparent".

Today, as he prepares to lead a country still reeling from the 2024 student-led uprising that toppled the 15-year "iron-fisted" regime of Sheikh Hasina, the question remains: is Rahman the face of a reformed, democratic Bangladesh, or a new chapter in the dynastic rivalries of many decades?

Rahman’s return to Bangladesh on December 25, 2025, was nothing short of cinematic.After 17 years in self-imposed exile, he arrived in Dhaka accompanied by his ginger cat, Zebu (usually called ‘Jebu’ by Bangla speakers), whose images quickly went viral on social media. The cat now has several Facebook pages in her name.

The joy of homecoming was largely eclipsed by the death of his mother, the three-time former PM Khaleda Zia, who passed away aged 80 just a week after his return.

Speaking from his office beneath gold-framed portraits of his late parents, Rahman described the "mixed feelings" of that moment. "This is my country, I was born here, I was raised here — so naturally, that was a very happy feeling," he told reporters. He lamented the missed opportunity to see his mother one last time: “When you come home after so long, any son wants to hug his mother... I didn't have that chance.”

Rahman then assumed the chairmanship of the BNP on January 9, 2026, and plunged into an election campaign that focused on moving past the bitterness of the Hasina era.

Born in 1965, he was in his mid-teens when his father, President Ziaur Rahman, a 1971 Liberation War hero and the founder of the BNP, was assassinated in a 1981 coup attempt.

During the 1971 war that turned a poor-cousin East Pakistan into a free Bangladesh, Tarique Rahman was briefly detained as a child, an experience that led his party to later hail him as "one of the youngest prisoners of war".

His father Ziaur Rehman, a military officer, had got political power in the years after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, widely considered the founding father of Bangladesh, was assassinated by some military men in 1975 amid his dictatorial turn.

That brought Mujibur Rahman's daughter Sheikh Hasina into politics. Khaleda Zia entered politics in the 1980s after husband Ziaur Rehman's kiling.

Tarique, who often used the surname Zia, grew up in the political orbit of his mother Khaleda Zia as she engaged in a decades-long, bitter duel for power with Sheikh Hasina.

A young Rahman began his own political career in 1988 as a primary member of the BNP in Bogra. He rose to prominence during his mother’s 2001–2006 tenure as PM, a period that would also eventually lead to his downfall and exile.