India’s Modi congratulates Bangladesh election winner Tarique Rehman

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India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Friday for winning landmark elections, as New Delhi seeks to reset rocky ties with its neighbor.

The BNP secured a landslide win in Thursday’s vote, the first elections held since a 2024 uprising ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was allied with India and fled there after her government was toppled.

Hailing a “decisive victory” by the BNP and its leader Tarique Rahman, Modi said on social media that it “shows the trust of the people of Bangladesh in your leadership”.

“India will continue to stand in support of a democratic, progressive and inclusive Bangladesh.”

Rahman, 60, is set to become Bangladesh’s prime minister after the BNP alliance won 212 seats, according to the Election Commission, compared with 77 for the nearest rival, the Islamist-led Jamaat-e-Islami bloc.

In a separate statement, Modi said he spoke with Rahman over the phone to convey his wishes.

“As two close neighbors with deep-rooted historical and cultural ties, I reaffirmed India’s continued commitment to the peace, progress, and prosperity of both our peoples,” the Indian leader said in a post on X.

Ties between Delhi and Dhaka nosedived after 78-year-old Hasina fled to India.

India’s sheltering of Hasina despite extradition requests angered Dhaka’s interim government.

The two countries have also regularly sparred over what Delhi calls “unremitting hostility” against the Hindu minority in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country of 170 million people.

Dhaka accuses India of exaggerating the scale of the violence.

Things unraveled when a Bangladeshi cricketer was removed from the Indian Premier League after Hindu right-wing protests, leading Bangladesh to withdraw from the ongoing T20 World Cup in India.

Dhaka has also deepened engagement with India’s arch-enemy Pakistan, resuming direct flights in January after more than a decade.

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