Bangla Press Desk: The BNP has chosen its Secretary General, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, as the party’s candidate for the presidency.
BNP Chairman and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman finalised Fakhrul’s candidacy at a meeting with senior party leaders at the Secretariat on Thursday.
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi announced Fakhrul’s nomination after the meeting.
Fakhrul has also resigned as the BNP secretary general following his nomination for the presidency.
Fakhrul became the BNP’s acting secretary general in 2011 and was formally appointed secretary general at the party’s national council in 2016. Over the years, he emerged as one of the BNP’s key leaders.
He played a crucial leadership role during the periods when the party’s two top leaders, Khaleda Zia, was imprisoned, and Tarique Rahman was in exile in London. During the Awami League government’s tenure, Fakhrul was jailed six times.
He led the party through various forms of repression and political adversity under the previous government and established himself as a widely respected and acceptable figure in Bangladesh’s political arena.
In the 13th parliamentary election, Fakhrul was elected as a member of parliament from the Thakurgaon-1 constituency. He subsequently joined Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s cabinet as the minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives.
