Tahmina Rushdir Luna, wife of the disappeared Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader M Ilias Ali, has been nominated by the party to contest the Sylhet-2 constituency in the upcoming 13th general parliamentary election.
The nomination for Luna, who is also a member of the Advisory Council to BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, was announced today by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as part of the party’s preliminary list of candidates for 237 seats.
A Decade Since Disappearance
The nomination of Tahmina Rushdir Luna brings back into focus the high-profile disappearance of her husband, M Ilias Ali. A former Member of Parliament for Sylhet-2 and the Organizing Secretary of the BNP, Ilias Ali vanished along with his driver, Ansar Ali, from the Banani area of Dhaka on the night of April 17, 2012.
His abandoned car was later found, but despite widespread protests and international attention, Ilias Ali remains missing. For over a decade, the BNP has consistently blamed the government for the incident, an allegation the government has always rejected. His disappearance has become a powerful symbol for the BNP in its long-running movement against alleged enforced disappearances and political repression in the country.
BNP Prepares for Polls
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the announcement at a press conference at the BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office, following a Standing Committee meeting chaired virtually by Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman from London.
“After a long 16 years, we are going to have a democratic election in February [2026]. This is the potential candidate list for approximately 237 seats,” said the Secretary General. He added that the party would coordinate the remaining seats with its partners in the simultaneous movement.
The Secretary General was joined at the press briefing by Standing Committee members, including Dr. Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Mirza Abbas, Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, Dr. Abdul Moin Khan, Major (retd.) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Selima Rahman, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, and Dr. A Z M Zahid Hossain.
