Nepal's political situation

Former rapper becomes new prime minister in Nepal

Former rapper Balendra Shah and his four-year-old centrist party RSP win Nepal's parliamentary election by a wide margin, AP reports.

RSP wins its own majority with 182 of the 275 seats in Nepal's lower house. The second-place finisher, the social democratic establishment party Nepali Congress Party, won 38 seats.

The election was the first since last year's deadly so-called Gen Z protests, which forced the government to resign.

Tiktok and bell ringing - Nepal's youth took power with a leaderless campaign

In a Tiktok clip, a young daughter stands leaning over her father, who has voted for the establishment party Nepali Congress Party all her life, and frantically rings a traditional Nepali bell.

She scolds her father, saying that his party loyalty is as shameful as if she were to run away with a man.

“I irritate my father who hates the RSP,” she writes in the clip.

With the Nepali clock as a symbol – and a leaderless grassroots campaign – the newly formed party RSP managed to tear down the old power structures in Nepal, writes Nepali Times.

The old parties have built structures with well-organized campaigns and youth unions for decades, but they were overtaken by the RSP’s social media strategy.

“One person posts, three friends remix, their followers adapt it to their own local context, and so the message spreads without a single directive from the party headquarters,” writes the newspaper.

The Gen Z protests in Nepal — it’s about the matter

• In the fall of 2025, the Nepalese government blocked 26 social media sites, which triggered widespread protests led by young people in Kathmandu.
• Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned and Sushila Karki was appointed interim prime minister. New elections were called for March 2026.
• Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned and Sushila Karki was appointed interim prime minister. New elections were called for March 2026.
• Balendra Shah, a former rapper and leader of the centrist RSP party, won a landslide victory in the new elections.
• The RSP won a majority in parliament with 182 out of 275 seats, marking a shift in power driven by the young generation's demands for change.