Rumeen Farhana wins Brahmanbaria-2 as an independent ^{CEFR B2}

Rumeen Farhana, a Bangladeshi barrister and long-time BNP figure, ran as an independent in Brahmanbaria-2 after the party denied her a nomination in the 2026 general election. She entered politics under the mentorship of former prime minister Khaleda Zia and served as BNP co-international affairs secretary. Her official election symbol was a duck; after a February 13 press meeting in which she held a live duck, social media began calling her the "Mother of Ducks." She won the seat by a margin of 38,000 votes.

Farhana says she worked in the constituency since 2017, was asked to step aside in 2018 with a promise of candidacy in 2024, and that the party confirmed then reversed her nomination. She says BNP instead backed a candidate from an allied party and later expelled her on the day of Khaleda Zia’s passing, a timing she described as intentional.

During the campaign she reports sustained online and offline harassment, including AI-generated sexual content and coordinated attacks. She says her ground campaign emphasised welfare and door-to-door work among working-class voters, and that this approach won voter support. She has accused BNP leadership of corruption, running extortion rackets (chandabazi) and illegal sand and soil businesses, and criticised very low female representation—she says only three percent of nominees were women and most women nominees inherited seats.

On February 20 at midnight she was attacked at the Shaheed Minar, an incident she attributed to BNP supporters. Farhana warned that the party risks internal instability and questioned its long-term future, suggesting Bangladesh may revert to a two-party landscape dominated by other alignments. She invoked family history—her father, Oli Ahad, was a freedom fighter and founding member of the Awami League who won as an independent in 1973—and said she remains unbowed and will continue to press constituents' demands and speak about corruption, gender barriers and shrinking space for dissent.