Soon after the completion of 100 Greatest Britons poll in 2002, the BBC organized a similar opinion poll to find out the greatest Bengali personalities throughout the history of Bengali people. In 2004, the BBC's Bengali Service conducted the opinion poll from 11 February to 22 March, with the title Greatest Bengali of All Time. Bengalis around the world, specifically from Bangladesh, India and overseas Bengali communities participated in the poll.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, popularly known by the honorific prefix Bangabandhu, was a Bangladeshi politician, revolutionary, statesman, activist and diarist. As a politician, Mujib had held continuous positions either as Bangladesh's president or as its prime minister from April 1971 until his assassination in August 1975. Mujib successfully led the Bangladeshi independence movement and restored the Bengali sovereignty after over two centuries following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, for which he is honoured as the 'Father of the Nation' in Bangladesh. In 2011, the fifteenth constitutional amendment in Bangladesh referred to Sheikh Mujib as the Father of the Nation who declared independence; these references were enshrined in the fifth, sixth, and seventh schedules of the constitution. His Bengali nationalist ideology, socio-political theories, and political doctrines are sometimes called Mujibism.