Rastriya Swatantra Occasion, based simply 4 years in the past, set to dominate new parliament with close to two-thirds majority.
Revealed On 12 Mar 2026
A political celebration led by a rapper-turned-politician has gained a sweeping parliamentary majority in Nepal, official outcomes present, capping one of the vital dramatic elections within the nation’s latest historical past.
The Rastriya Swatantra Occasion of Balendra Shah, a 35-year-old former civil engineer and hip-hop artist recognized merely as “Balen”, secured 182 seats within the 275-member decrease home of parliament, the Election Fee mentioned on Thursday, with 125 gained immediately and an extra 57 by proportional illustration.
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The Nepali Congress celebration completed in second place, with 38 seats. The Marxist celebration of veteran four-time Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, whose authorities was ousted in a youth-led rebellion final 12 months, gained simply 25 seats.
Shah himself defeated the 74-year-old Oli in his personal constituency.
Oli, who had dominated Nepali politics for years, congratulated his rival on X, wishing him a “clean and profitable” time period.
The September 2025 protests that reshaped the nation’s political panorama have been initially set off by a authorities ban on social media, however quickly swelled right into a mass motion towards corruption and financial stagnation, leaving at the least 77 folks lifeless.
Shah, whose music had lengthy focused those self same grievances, emerged as a figurehead of the unrest, his track Nepal Haseko, or Nepal Smiling, accumulating greater than 10 million YouTube views through the turmoil.
His path to possible prime minister, from engineer to rapper to Kathmandu’s first unbiased mayor in 2022, displays a generational shift in a rustic the place greater than 40 p.c of the almost 30 million inhabitants is below 35, but whose established celebration management has lengthy remained in its 70s.
Shah mentioned his victory was a sign of refusal to take “the simple means out” and a reckoning with the “issues and betrayals which have affected the nation.”
The RSP, based the identical 12 months as his mayoral win, ran a extremely organised marketing campaign backed by diaspora funding, notably from Nepali communities in the US.
Nepalese journalist Pranaya Rana described Shah to Al Jazeera as embodying “the outsider spirit that many younger Nepalis are in search of to shake up the established order.”
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to as the vote a “proud second” in Nepal’s democratic journey, pledging shut cooperation with the incoming authorities.
Beneath Nepal’s constitutional course of, events should now submit names to fill proportionally allotted seats earlier than parliament is formally summoned by the president. A brand new prime minister, who will want the assist of at the least half of all members, shouldn’t be anticipated to be confirmed for a number of days.
