Bangladesh's newly-elected Prime MinisterTarique Rahmanis being mocked as an "engineer" with the opposition accusing him of "engineering" his party’s sweeping election victory. Rahman, the 60-year-old chief of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was sworn in as the 11th prime minister on Tuesday after leading his party to a forceful victory in the 13th Parliamentary polls held on February 12. In the recently concluded national elections in Bangladesh, the BNP bagged 209 out of 297 seats, while Jamaat-e-Islami secured 68 seats.
Now, the Jamaat-e-Islami and its alliance partner, the National Citizens Party (NCP), are accusing Rahman of election rigging. NCP leader Nasiruddin Patwary posted a congratulatory message on Facebook laced with sarcasm, calling the BNP chief an "engineer".
“Congratulations! Engineer Tarique Rahman. Congratulations on your success in the 13th batch of National Election Engineering," Patwary wrote on February 14. The post quickly went viral, drawing hundreds of thousands of reactions and spawning a flood of memes, jokes and AI-generated images depicting Tarique Rahman wearing construction helmets and safety vests.
Patwary had earlier labelled BNP heavyweight Mirza Abbas a "chaandabaaj" (meaning extortionist or illegal fundraiser).
Following the results, Rahman was asked about the allegations of poll rigging, to which he replied that the only "engineering was convincing the people to vote for them."
Rahman was on Tuesday sworn in as Bangladesh's new prime minister, marking a new beginning for the country after 18 months of political uncertainty and lawlessness witnessed under the rule of the interim government led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, accompanied by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, represented India at the oath ceremony. Birla handed over a personal letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Rahman, conveying his wishes and inviting him to visit India at the "earliest convenience".
Besides Birla, Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu, Bhutanese Prime Minister Dasho Tshering Tobgay, Pakistan’s Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Nepal’s Foreign Minister Bala Nanda Sharma and Sri Lanka’s Minister of Health and Mass Media Nalinda Jayatissa were among those who attended the event.
The ceremony was held at the open space of the South Plaza of the Jatiya Sangsad in the presence of Bangladesh's top political and military brass.
Apoorva Shukla is a journalist at Times Now, where she thrives on dissecting political developments both at home and abroad. A graduate of Delhi Univ...View More
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