Rumeen Farhana wins Brahmanbaria-2 as an independent ^{CEFR B1}

Rumeen Farhana is a barrister and politician who long belonged to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and began in politics under Khaleda Zia. After failing to get a BNP nomination in the 2026 election she ran as an independent in Brahmanbaria-2. Her official symbol was a duck; on February 13 she held a press meeting with a live duck and social media nicknamed her the "Mother of Ducks". She won the seat by 38,000 votes.

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

During the campaign she reports sustained online and offline harassment, including AI-generated sexual content and coordinated attacks. She says her ground work focused on welfare and door-to-door visits among working-class voters, and that voters rewarded that approach. She has publicly accused BNP leaders of corruption, extortion (chandabazi) and illegal sand and soil businesses, and criticised very low female representation in nominations.

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 says she will continue to press local demands and speak about corruption, gender barriers and shrinking space for dissent.