Dhaka: Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, who has risen through the political ranks from grassroots activism and steered the BNP through some of its most difficult years, is now the party’s nominee for the presidency. A BNP delegation submitted the nomination paper to Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin at Nirbachan Bhaban in the city’s Agargaon area Thursday afternoon, formally putting forward its Secretary General for the country’s highest constitutional office.
According to United News of Bangladesh, BNP Chairman and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman nominated Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as the BNP’s candidate for the presidential election. Tarique announced his decision at the beginning of a meeting with the party’s Standing Committee members and senior leaders at the Prime Minister’s Office at the secretariat. Fakhrul, a student leader in his youth, was an economics teacher and eventually became a politician, serving as a municipality chairman, a member of parliament, a state minister, and a minister. Now, he is set to become the country’s 23rd president.
At 78, Fakhrul has had a long and varied political journey, marked by political responsibility, organizational leadership, and periods of adversity. Widely regarded as a moderate and seasoned politician within the BNP, Fakhrul remained one of the party’s most visible leaders during its prolonged political struggle against the Awami League government.
Fakhrul was born on January 26, 1948, in the Kalibari area of Thakurgaon town. His father, Mirza Ruhul Amin, was a lawyer who served as a member of both the Pakistan Provincial Assembly and Bangladesh’s Parliament, and as a minister in the Ershad government. Fakhrul completed his primary and secondary education in Thakurgaon before passing his Higher Secondary Certificate examination from Dhaka College. He then obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Dhaka.
His political engagement began during his university years, joining leftist politics and becoming president of the East Pakistan Students’ Union’s Dhaka University unit. He also served as the elected general secretary of the organization’s SM Hall unit and was president of the Dhaka University unit of the Students’ Union during the 1969 mass uprising.
After completing his studies, Fakhrul worked as a lecturer in economics at Dhaka College before entering government service. He left his job in 1986 to pursue politics full-time and was elected chairman of the Thakurgaon municipality as an independent candidate in 1988. Fakhrul’s national political career began with his association with the National Awami Party (NAP) before he eventually joined the BNP.
During the anti-Ershad movement in the early 1990s, Fakhrul joined the BNP, becoming president of the Thakurgaon district unit in 1992. He rose through the party hierarchy, holding several key positions before becoming a senior joint secretary general. He served as BNP acting secretary general from 2011 and was elected secretary general at the party’s sixth national council in 2016, a position he has held since.
Fakhrul’s political journey was marked by challenges, particularly following the 1/11 political changeover and during the Awami League’s long tenure in power. Amidst the BNP’s struggles, Fakhrul emerged as the party’s most visible leader at home, steering the organization through successive crises and leading its movement against the Awami League government.
Fakhrul was elected to Parliament from Thakurgaon-1 constituency in the 2001 general election and served as state minister for agriculture and later as state minister for civil aviation and tourism during Khaleda Zia’s government. In the 2018 general election, he won from Bogura-6 but did not take oath as an MP due to allegations of vote rigging.
Currently serving as the Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Fakhrul’s nomination for the presidency marks a significant milestone in his long career spanning student politics, teaching, government service, local government, parliamentary politics, and ministerial responsibility.
Fakhrul is married to Rahat Ara Begum, with whom he has two daughters. His elder daughter resides in Australia, working as a postdoctoral fellow in Sydney, while his younger daughter teaches at an English-medium school in Dhaka. With the submission of his nomination paper, Fakhrul’s decades-long political journey has now brought him to the threshold of the country’s highest constitutional office.