- Balen Shah defeats former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in Jhapa-5.
- Shah wins seat with 68,348 votes against Oli's 18,734.
- Victory marks highest individual vote total in Nepal since 1991.
- Shah represents Rastriya Swatantra Party in parliamentary elections.
A prominent triumph in the current political landscape of Nepal was the election of Balen Shah, the rapper-cum-politician and former Kathmandu Metropolitan City mayor, who unseated the former Prime Minister, K P Sharma Oli, in the 2013 parliamentary elections.
Shah had contested the Jhapa-5 constituency which had remained the political stronghold of Oli. Shah was the overwhelming winner with 68,348 votes to beat Oli who had 18,734 votes by 49,614 votes despite some initial scepticism among analysts who had questioned the strategy.
Election statistics indicate that the number of votes that Shah got symbolizes the most votes an individual secured on the Nepal elections of house of representatives since 1991.
Shah is a leader of a political party called the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which is quite new and was established by an ex-television personality known as Rabi Lamichhane. Since the joining, the party has become a strong contender in the elections and has already obtained the largest number of seats to date and has a leading position in a number of seats in the 165 seats to be filled under Nepal under the First-Past-the-Post electoral system.
Born into Hip-Hop Artist and becoming a Political Leader
Shah was born on April 27, 1990, in Kathmandu in a Madhesi family, had studied engineering and then when he entered politics. He has done his undergraduate in Nepal and also acquired a masters degree in Structural Engineering in India.
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The field of engineering guided his decision making in his rule as the mayor of Kathmandu mostly on matters pertaining to the infrastructure, urban planning and the works of the people.
Shah had an underground hip-hop following as he was well known as a vocal figure in Nepal politics even before he got into politics. Being a rapper and lyricist, he was known by the songs that dealt with the social inequality, the corruption and the youth frustrations.
His song, Balidan which focused on disparities between the privileged and the marginalised, wore well with the young audience and contributed to gaining the loyalty of the youth in Nepal.
Shah received his first national political coverage in 2022, when he entered the Kathmandu mayoral race as an independent candidate and won the race against the participants of larger political parties.
This election was largely regarded as a pivot in the Nepal politics, and as having influenced Lamichhane to form the Rastriya Swatantra Party which stands to be an opposition to the conventional political parties.
A Nepal Political Portrait of a Change of Generation
In his leadership as a mayor, Shah developed a reputation as a vocal reformist liberal. He has constantly taken out senior political leaders, including Oli, in his posts in social media and in open utterances.
Urban reforms such as waste control, control of illegal building, increased transparency of the municipal governance and preservation of Kathmandu cultural heritage were the policies of his administration.
Shah was confrontational in his approach to bureaucratic ineffeiciency and institutionalized political elites and was popular amongst those who supported reform but many critics tended to characterize his style as being controversial.
Even a month prior to the election, the political environment in Nepal was shaken. The protests which were broadly characterized as a Gen-Z movement caused the fall of the government headed by Oli in September. The violence led to the death of 77 and damage of property worth more than NPR 84 billion as per government statistics.
At the period of the political uncertainties that ensued, Shah was often talked of as a candidate in the position of prime minister. He however backed the interim Prime Minister, Sushila Karki who helped in the transition period and the organising of parliamentary elections.
A few weeks to the election, Shah and Lamichhane officially joined hands under the same political platform, an action that boosted the chances of the RSP to win the election.
As Shah trounced one of the most established political leaders in Nepal, his ascent has been largely considered to be the commencement of changes in the politics of the country in terms of generation with younger generation voters demanding accountability, reform and better youth representation in the government.
