Amit Ranjan
In the first parliamentary elections in March 2026, following the Gen-Z protest in September last year, an engineer, rapper and former mayor of Kathmandu, Balendra Shah (popularly known as Balen), led the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), formed in 2022, to a landslide victory. The party won 124 out of 164 seats, for which votes have been counted. There are 275 seats in the House of Representatives. Out of the total, 165 members of the House of Representatives are elected under the first-past-the-post system, while 110 are elected through proportional representation. Around 60 per cent of the voters cast their votes in this election.
Balen defeated the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) chair and former prime minister of Nepal, K P Oli, in his own constituency, Jhapa-5, by a large margin. The RSP’s victory is largely built on support from young voters who were unhappy with the political old guard. Balen’s slogan of “time for change” attracted many voters disillusioned with the old leadership. His social media popularity in Nepal is unmatched. He has 3.5 million followers on Facebook, one million on Instagram, 400,000 on X (formerly Twitter) and nearly one million on YouTube.
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