Rumeen Farhana, the newly elected lawmaker from Brahmanbaria-2, said leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) contacted her even before the official election results, once they were confident of her win.
“They contacted me when they realised I was certainly going to win the election as an independent candidate. They suggested it would be good to sit together and even hinted that I could get something bigger than an MP post. I declined,” she said while speaking to journalists at her residence in Shahbazpur, Sarail upazila this afternoon.
She stressed that she had no interest in pre-election discussions, adding, “I told them if there were any conversation at all, it could only be after the 12th.”
Rumeen also disclosed receiving several phone calls post-election, possibly congratulatory, but said she was largely uninterested in responding.
“I don’t know who called for what reason. Frankly, I am not interested,” she remarked.
Asked about her relationship with BNP, Rumeen, a former party leader, said she no longer considered it her political home.
“They expelled me. So I don’t have a party anymore. This is not my party,” she said, emphasising that her politics were now entirely her own.
While acknowledging her involvement in BNP’s long struggle for fair elections over the past 17 years, Rumeen criticised the party’s recent conduct.
She alleged that in the past year and a half, some party elements had engaged in extortion, land grabbing, intimidation, and other abuses.
“I cannot be a part of that. My politics is mine, and the party’s politics is theirs,” she said.
Rumeen credited her supporters, campaigners, and voters for her win, claiming that hostile remarks from certain BNP leaders had actually widened her margin of victory.
“If they hadn’t behaved the way they did, I wouldn’t have won by such a large margin,” she said, noting that voters had expressed their views through the ballot.
Looking ahead, Rumeen promised to speak truth to power, protest injustice, and stand against corruption, regardless of who holds authority.
“I represent the people of Brahmanbaria-2 — nearly 500,000 voters. My responsibility is to them,” she said.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/news/national-election-2026/news/bnp-contacted-me-when-they-realised-i-was-certainly-going-win-4105371
