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Sheikh Hasina in exile in India, Khaleda Zia ‘critical’ at Dhaka hospital, what happens next in Bangladesh?
Will Khaleda Zia's son return from London? That's a key question ahead of elections planned over a year after students-led protest ousted Hasina
A year after a bloody, student-led uprising in Bangladesh forced the then PM Sheikh Hasina into exile, now the fast-deteriorating health of her nemesis Khaleda Zia means the country is without its two main political faces, at a time when the interim administration is promising elections by April.
Begum Khaleda Zia, the former two-time prime minister and chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), is in the middle of an acute health crisis.
Zia “remains in ‘very critical’ condition” at a Dhaka hospital, reported Reuters on Sunday, November 30. Doctors and senior party officials said she was admitted on November 23 with a “severe chest infection affecting her heart and lungs”. She is 80 years old.
Will Khaleda Zia's son return to Bangladesh?
Zia was released from house arrest following the mass protests in August 2024. After traveling abroad for treatment, she returned to Dhaka in May this year to the welcome of thousands of party activists. However, her health has deteriorated sharply since.
This has put intense pressure on the BNP, which has traditionally been the more right-wing alternative to the now-banned banned Awami League of Sheikh Hasina.
The BNP which boycotted the last two elections, yet is now seen as a frontrunner since Sheikh Hasina’s ouster. But its matriarch is now gravely ill and her son and declared successor, Tarique Rahman, is still abroad.
Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of the BNP who has lived in London since 2008, said on Facebook that his return to Bangladesh is “not entirely” in his control.
Hours later, the interim government, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, publicly clarified the situation, saying there are “no restrictions or objections” to his return. "There are no obstacles in this matter,” said Yunus’ press secretary.
When are the elections in Bangladesh now?
With both dominant figures sidelined, Bangladesh is governed by the interim administration of Muhammad Yunus, who has said elections could be held in April 2026.
The BNP has demanded elections either this December or February next year.
So far there is no consensus on a timetable and process for elections, news agency AP has reported.
Meanwhile, new political forces are rising. Student leaders who spearheaded the uprising formed a new party and demand that the constitution be rewritten. Religious hardliners are gaining influence too.
The Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party won key student election earlier this year. It has held massive rallies in Dhaka.
Political analyst Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah told AP that the "so-called disciplined Islamist forces could work as a catalyst against liberal and moderate forces”.
‘Hope remains unfulfilled’
Human Rights Watch has, meanwhile, noted that the “hope of the thousands who braved lethal violence... remains unfulfilled” a year after the protests.
The government, it says, is “stuck, juggling an unreformed security sector, sometimes violent religious hardliners, and political groups that seem more focused on extracting vengeance".
Mosharraf Hossain, whose daughter was killed by a stray bullet during the violence, said to the news agency: “We want a new Bangladesh … It’s been 54 years since independence, yet freedom was not achieved.”
What happens to Sheikh Hasina?
Meanwhile, Sheikh Hasina, whose 15-year continuous rule ended with the student protests, remains in “self-imposed exile” in India after recently being sentenced to death for “crimes against humanity” by a tribunal in Dhaka.
Her stay in India has remained a contentious issue between the Narendra Modi government and Yunus's regime.
Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed and daughter Saima Wazed were each sentenced five years in prison too. Hasina and her son have denounced the conviction as a “kangaroo court judgment”. Sajeed Wazed alleged that the aim of the conviction was "to prevent any of my family (members) from running for elections”.
Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, considered the founding father of Bangladesh after it broke away from Pakistan in 1971. His legacy after the 2024 protests in particular is contested. His image has been removed from currency, and the title ‘Father of the Nation’ been formally removed.
There have been criticisms of his post-independence policies, which some blame for the country's corruption political system.
‘Mujib’, as he is usually referred to, was assassinated along with many family members on August 15, 1975, by Bangladesh Army personnel as part of a coup. Hasina was abroad at the time, and later returned to become major figure in the country's politics.
