Bangladesh will vote Thursday in a Parliamentary election that will perhaps have more far-reaching consequences for India than any such exercise in the recent past in its neighbourhood. Ironically, with Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League not in the fray, India’s best hopes of a realistic reset in ties with Dhaka rest on a majority for the frontrunner Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Hasina’s bête noire and a party with historically fraught ties with New Delhi.
Wrongfooted by the 2024 July Uprising that ousted long-term ally Hasina, India intensified its outreach to the BNP realising the then Khaleda Zia-led party offered the optimum choice for future legitimacy and stability in the country. The renewed engagement with BNP leaders, PM Narendra Modi’s offer of help for Zia’s treatment just before her demise and his letter to her son and current leader Tarique Rahman, delivered through foreign minister S Jaishankar, firmed up the initiative, despite the restraining factor of Hasina’s presence in India.
