Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has been nominated by the ruling party as its presidential candidate. Barring any major political or constitutional development, he is expected to become the country’s next president, as the ruling party commands a majority in parliament. Under Article 70 of the Constitution, lawmakers are generally bound by their party’s decision when voting. With the ruling party holding a parliamentary majority, Mirza Fakhrul is therefore poised to become Bangladesh’s 23rd president.
His journey toward the presidency, however, began far from the centre of political power. Starting out as a teacher, he gradually made his way into frontline politics.
Born in Thakurgaon on January 26, 1948, Mirza Fakhrul completed his higher secondary education at Dhaka College before studying economics at the University of Dhaka. His father, Mirza Ruhul Amin, was a lawyer and politician, while other members of his family also had long-standing involvement in politics.
After passing the Bangladesh Civil Service examination in 1972, Fakhrul joined the education cadre. He taught economics at Dhaka College and several other government colleges. Alongside teaching, he also worked as an auditor at a government office.
In 1979, he became private secretary to then Deputy Prime Minister S.A. Bari, expanding his involvement in the administrative and political spheres. He later returned to teaching and worked at Thakurgaon Government College.
Fakhrul’s involvement in politics dates back to his student years. While studying at the University of Dhaka, he became active in the politics of the then East Pakistan Chhatra Union. During the mass uprising of 1969, he served as president of the organisation’s Dhaka University unit.
He joined BNP politics during the anti-Ershad movement in the late 1980s. In the 1988 municipal election, he was elected chairman of Thakurgaon Municipality. After being elected president of the BNP’s Thakurgaon district unit in 1992, his role in national politics expanded further.
Although he lost several parliamentary elections earlier in his career, Fakhrul was elected MP from Thakurgaon-1 in 2001. That year, he joined Khaleda Zia’s second cabinet, first serving as state minister for agriculture and later as state minister for civil aviation and tourism.
Following his defeat in the 2008 election, his position within the BNP’s organisational structure continued to grow. In 2009, he was appointed the party’s senior joint secretary general. After the Awami League formed the government that year, he emerged as one of the opposition’s leading spokespersons.
Following the death of BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain in 2011, Fakhrul became the party’s acting secretary general. He was formally elected secretary general at the BNP’s national council in 2016.
Throughout his long political career, Fakhrul has played a leading role in the BNP’s various movements and programmes. He was also a key organiser of the party’s “March for Democracy” programme in 2013. During protests demanding, among other things, the restoration of the caretaker government system, he remained one of the BNP’s most prominent leaders.
During his years in opposition politics, Fakhrul was arrested numerous times. The BNP and his lawyers have at various times claimed that more than a hundred cases have been filed against him. He was jailed several times during the political unrest between 2012 and 2015.
In December 2022, he was arrested from his home ahead of the BNP’s divisional rallies. He was arrested again in the early hours of October 29, 2023, following clashes and violence surrounding the BNP’s grand rally in Dhaka on October 28. He subsequently spent an extended period in custody.
His political career has involved not only arrests but also attacks, tear gas and sound grenades during rallies and protests. Despite his age and various physical challenges, he has continued to lead the party’s movements and organisational activities for years.
In the 2018 general election, Fakhrul contested from both Thakurgaon-1 and Bogura-6 as a BNP candidate. He won the Bogura-6 seat, but did not take the oath as an MP in accordance with the party’s decision. The seat was subsequently declared vacant and a by-election was held.
In his personal life, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir is married to Rahat Ara Begum. They have two daughters, Mirza Shamaruh and Mirza Safaruh. Their elder daughter, Shamaruh, studied at the University of Dhaka and is currently involved in postdoctoral research in Australia, while their younger daughter, Safaruh, is a teacher.
From teaching and administrative service to municipal politics, parliament and the cabinet, and eventually to leading the BNP as its secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has travelled a long and eventful political road. Much of his political career has been defined by opposition movements, legal cases, arrests and the challenges of steering his party through periods of crisis.
After that long journey, his nomination for the country’s highest constitutional office marks another significant chapter in Bangladesh’s recent political history.
