Rapper Balendra Shah has defeated the former Nepalese Prime Minister Sharma KP Oli in his parliamentary constituency, as he takes a step closer to becoming Nepal’s next prime minister.
Nepal’s Election Commission confirmed on Saturday that Shah, 35, received 68,348 votes, compared to Oli’s 18,734, to unseat the former leader in his constituency.
Thursday’s general election – the first since violent youth-led protests toppled the government in September – pitted the establishment against a new generation of politicians advocating for angry, young Gen Z voters hungry for change.
Shah’s Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) is now seemingly on course to win the general election.
The party has a majority in directly elected seats in the general election counted so far, according to partial official results on Sunday, and official trends suggest it could be heading for a landslide.
The 35-year-old is also leading in the proportional representation vote count so far, according to the election commission.
For more than two decades, Nepal has seen a revolving door of coalition governments, largely dominated by three parties, two of them communist.
Ahead of this election, it looked set to test whether Gen Z voters had succeeded in convincing the rest of the country that it is time for a new, untested generation to shape their future, or whether veteran heavyweights – who have dominated for decades – would keep hold of power.
The country’s youth included 800,000 first-time voters, making them a key voter bloc.
Shah, who is popularly known as Balen, has been a member of the Nepali hip hop scene for several years. One of his songs, Balidan, about sacrifice in the Nepali language, has millions of YouTube views.
In September 2025, unrest erupted in Nepal with so-called Gen Z demonstrations, triggered by Oli’s banning of social media platforms.
The demonstrations escalated with protesters criticising Nepal’s political system and the symbolism of class inequality, “nepo babies” – children of the country’s politicians.
A total of 77 were killed during the protests, and a BBC investigation revealed the country’s police chief issued an order allowing the use of lethal force against thousands of unarmed protesters.
Shah spoke in support of the protesters and at one stage called Oli a “terrorist” who had betrayed his country.
The rapper typically shuns the media, but told the Financial Times while he was on the campaign trail, he would be “the candidate for all of Nepal”.
In February, Shah’s RSP released its manifesto, which vowed to create 1.2 million jobs and reduce forced migration, in an effort to tap into frustration over unemployment and low wages that have pushed millions of Nepalis to move overseas.
The party has also pledged that within five years it would raise Nepal’s per capital income from $1,447 to $3,000, more than double the country’s economy to $100 billion GDP and provide safety nets such as healthcare insurance for the population.
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