Ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been living freely in exile in New Delhi since fleeing her country last year, has said she will not return home under any government formed after elections that exclude her party, the Awami League.
In an emailed interview with news agency Reuters, her first since being toppled in a student-led uprising in August 2024 , the 78-year-old former leader said millions of her supporters would boycott next year’s election, calling the ban on the Awami League “unjust” and “self-defeating.”
“The ban on the Awami League is not only unjust, it is self-defeating,” Hasina said. “Millions of people support the Awami League, so as things stand, they will not vote. You cannot disenfranchise millions of people if you want a political system that works.”
Hasina has been residing in New Delhi since her ouster, and according to Reuters, lives freely though cautiously because of her family’s violent political past. Reuters say that Hasina was recently seen taking a quiet stroll through the capital’s Lodhi Garden, acknowledging passersby with a nod while being accompanied by two individuals who appeared to be her personal security detail.
“I live freely in Delhi but remain cautious, given my family’s history,” Hasina said, recalling that her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founding leader and three brothers were assassinated in a 1975 military coup while she and her sister were abroad.
“I would of course love to go home, so long as the government there was legitimate, the constitution was being upheld, and law and order genuinely prevailed,” she said.
An interim government led by Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus has ruled Bangladesh since Hasina’s fall and plans to hold elections in February 2026. The Election Commission suspended the Awami League’s registration in May, while all party activities were earlier banned citing national security threats and war crimes investigations against senior party leaders.
Hasina, credited with modernising Bangladesh’s economy but accused of human rights abuses and suppressing dissent, faces charges of crimes against humanity over a violent crackdown on student protests in mid-2024. A UN report estimates that up to 1,400 people were killed and thousands injured during the unrest.
Calling the ongoing proceedings “politically motivated charades,” Hasina said she was denied fair process and that guilty verdicts were “a foregone conclusion.” A verdict in her case is due on November 13.
Despite the political turmoil, Hasina told Reuters she remains confident the Awami League will eventually return to Bangladesh’s political landscape “whether in government or opposition.”
“It’s really not about me or my family,” she said. “For Bangladesh to achieve the future we all want, there must be a return to constitutional rule and political stability. No single person or family defines our country’s future.”
While Hasina’s presence in India remains low-profile, her political legacy continues to dominate Bangladesh’s politics, where an interim regime grapples with legitimacy concerns and the challenge of holding elections without its longest-serving leader.
