In the wake of the Gen Z protest movement that toppled Nepal’s government last year, voters have delivered a resounding majority to a party led by a 35-year-old rapper-turned-politician whose appeal rests in being unbeholden to the Nepali political establishment according to Time.
Official results of the March 5 election have so far shown that the party of Balendra Shah, the former mayor of the Nepali capital Kathmandu more popularly known as Balen, will form the South Asian nation’s next government. The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which was formed just four years ago, is on track to dominate the Nepalese parliament’s lower but more powerful chamber, having secured 125 of the 165 seats elected by direct vote, according to partial results released Tuesday. Some projections have estimated that Shah’s party is on track to secure around 184 seats in the 275-member House of Representatives.
The sudden rise of Shah’s party is a stunning upset for the small Himalayan country of 30 million wedged between India and China. For decades, power in Nepal has largely rotated between major parties including the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), and the Maoist Centre.
But discontent over years of perceived corruption among political elites boiled over in September after a government ban on social media apps. Protesters took to the streets and stormed federal buildings. At least 77 people died in violent clashes between protesters and police and then-Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli was forced to resign. Former Chief Justice Sushila Karki, who had the Nepali youth’s support, was installed as interim leader, with a promise to hold elections. “My duty is completed,” Karki told reporters on March 5 after casting her own vote.
Shah fought for the former Prime Minister Oli’s parliamentary seat, winning more than three times the number of votes. Oli conceded defeat and, in a post on X Saturday, congratulated Shah. “Balen Babu, Congratulations to you for the victory! May your five-year tenure be smooth and successful—heartfelt best wishes!”
Here are a few things to know about the politician.
A rapper known for socially conscious lyrics
Born in Naradevi, Kathmandu on April 27, 1990 to a father who practiced traditional Ayurvedic medicine and a homemaker mother, Shah stands out among Nepali politicians, not only for his signature black rectangular glasses, but for his roots in hip-hop.
An aide of Shah told Reuters that Shah had an early penchant for poetry that evolved into an affinity for rap music. Shah drew inspiration from American musicians Tupac Shakur and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.
Shah earned a civil engineering undergraduate degree and a master’s in structural engineering. But while pursuing studies, Shah was already making an impression in Nepal’s hip-hop scene in the early 2010s, after he released the single “Sadak Balak,” a song about street children and income inequality, and joined a popular rap battle series on YouTube.
That rap battle put Shah on the map. Shah swiftly rose to prominence, winning Nepali youth over through rap songs containing socially conscious lyrics. One of his biggest hits, “Balidan,” has almost 13 million views since its 2020 YouTube release and starts with the lines: “All the people who protect the country are cowards / All the leaders are thieves, they are looting the country.” His other song, “Nepal Haseko,” became an anthem during last year’s protests, and already has more than 10 million views on YouTube.
A former mayor of Kathmandu
Entering politics was always part of Shah’s plan. “From a young age, he was dissatisfied at the way the metropolitan city was being run,” his cousin Prashant Shah, speaking to the Kathmandu Post in 2022, said of his earlier bid for mayor. “The non-performance of the elected representatives prompted him to contest the elections.”
Shah ran for the mayoral seat in 2022 as an independent against candidates fielded by the Nepali old guard, winning a surprise victory on a largely online campaign against corruption and poor governance.
Shah’s time as mayor was defined by a massive cleanup campaign involving demolitions of illegal structures and crackdowns on unlicensed businesses. In 2023, he ordered garbage collectors to stop collecting waste from government offices, including the Prime Minister’s office, citing “neglect, lack of responsibility and carelessness shown by the federal government.” It wasn’t all smooth sailing: Shah left his own administration unpaid for months following a prolonged dispute with a city official whom he alleged to be corrupt, and some rights groups alleged human rights violations against street vendors in his administration’s bid to reclaim Kathmandu’s roads. He resigned as mayor earlier this year.
A social media presence
Shah won over the Nepali youth vote with his outsized social media presence. His Instagram account has over 1.2 million followers, while his Facebook page has 3.8 million. And given his anti-establishment, confrontational approach to governance, he became the face of the protests last year, which he said he backed.
“He’s a great orator, and he can connect with the crowd,” Sujeev Shakya, who chairs the Kathmandu-based think tank Nepal Economic Forum, tells TIME. “He’ll take transparency to a different level,” Shakya said. “He would rather communicate directly, rather than using the media as a tool that the past governments and political leaders have used,” he added, citing concerns about disinformation in Nepali press.
A new member of RSP
In the run-up to the election, Shah joined RSP, a party formed by former television personality Rabi Lamichhane in 2022 to tap into discontent against widespread corruption in Nepal.
Lamichhane, who also won a seat in the general election, was recently released from jail after being detained in relation to allegations of misappropriation of funds in Nepal’s cooperative sector. Supporters said his arrest was politically motivated to discredit him.
As Prime Minister, Shah is expected to distance himself from Lamichhane’s legal woes, says Puspa Sharma, senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies. “He might say that, ‘See, we have come here on a platform of good governance, therefore, this thing which is not within our mandate now, it has gone to the courts. Let the court decide,’” he says.