Bangladesh Nationalist Party

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ জাতীয়তাবাদী দল, romanized: Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Dal), popularly abbreviated as BNP ([ˈbijenpi]), is a major political party in Bangladesh. It was founded on 1 September 1978 by President Ziaur Rahman, with a view of uniting people with a nationalist ideology. Later, the BNP emerged as one of the two traditionally dominant parties in Bangladesh, along with it's rival, the Awami League.

Known as the "Party of the Freedom Fighters of the Battlefield" during it's establishment, the BNP was founded by Ziaur Rahman after the presidential election of 1978 and remained in its leadership until his assassination in 1981. Following Rahman's assassination, his widow, Khaleda Zia, took over leadership of the party and presided as chairperson until her imprisonment, in 2018. Since then, Tarique Rahman, the son of Rahman and Zia, has served as acting chairperson and has run the affairs of the party from London.

Since its creation, the BNP has won the 1979 election and 1981 presidential election as well as the 1991, February 1996 and 2001 general elections. Ziaur Rahman-led governments formed under the semi-presidential system and the parliamentary republics were led by Khaleda Zia, who served as prime minister. Begum Zia, who served as the party's chairperson from 1983, became the first woman prime minister of Bangladesh and the second female prime minister of a Muslim-majority country after Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto. The party holds the record of being the largest opposition in the history of parliamentary elections of the country with 116 seats in the general election of June 1996.

Begum Khaleda Zia is currently the chairperson of the party, with Tarique Rahman as the acting chairman and Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as the secretary-general. The party tends to consulate votes based on complete independence of Bangladeshi territory and a mix of Bengali and Islamic customs. It is often known to be pro-global with being very pro-China or pro-Southeast Asia and pro-Middle East to capture markets on foreign investment and remittance.