Nepal Election 2026: In the Nepal elections that mark the first national polls since the 2025 gen-z uprising, an evident battle is drawing everyone’s attention. Kathmandu mayor and former rapper Balendra Shah is seeking to unseat former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. Notably, Oli was ousted post the Gen-Z uprising in September 2025 and is now in the fray again. The election is vastly being seen as the youth vs traditional parties, and Balen is the face of this battle. In Nepal, where over 40 percent of the population is under the age of 35, Balen represents a breath of fresh air amid the country’s political landscape marred by corruption.
Who is Balendra Shah?
Nobody until 2013, Balen became an overnight rap sensation and a a decade later, in May 2022, he stunned everyone by winnning the post of Kathmandu mayor while contesting as an independent, defeating mainstream political parties. Three years later, the 35-year-old leader backed the gen-Z protestors in 2025 and became their first choice for interim leader of Nepal. However, Balen, as he is popularly known, supported former Supreme Court Chief Justice Sushila Karki for the post.
As a mayor of Kathmandu, Balendra Shah tackled the city’s trash crisis and became a change candidate. He is now up against KP Oli in the same constituency. Balen is a civil engineering graduate from Himalayan Whitehouse International College in Kathmandu and received a postgraduate degree in structural engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) in Karnataka, India. He is now pursuing a PhD in traditional infrastructure at Kathmandu University.
Rant Against India, China
Nepal sits between India and China. Traditionally, Nepal has been an ally of India and thus, China has been trying to influence the Himalayan nation for a long. KP Sharma Oli is mostly seen as pro-China. However, Balen has portrayed himself as pro-Nepal while abusing the traditional political parties and countries like India and China.
In a post on Facebook in November, Balen wrote, “F*** America, F*** India, F*** China, F*** UML, F*** Congress, F*** RSP, F*** RPP, F*** Maobaadi. You Guys all Combined can do nothing.” However, he deleted the post less than half an hour later, may be due to his constitutional position of Kathmandu mayor. Two months later, Balen joined the same Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which he abused earlier.
Popularity among youth voters
Balendra Shah has been a favourite of youth voters. He rarely appears in public without his black sunglasses and a black coat. He won over the youth voters not only because he backed the Gen-z protests but also because of his anti-government/political parties rap songs, where he criticized them for failures.
The RSP has fielded nine Gen Z candidates, many of whom are Shah’s close confidants. While there are a total of 160 Gen-Z candidates, only 15 of them are female. However, the September protests saw a large number participation from women.
Nepal is voting today, and the counting of votes will start within 24 hours. The final result for the 165 seats of the lower house is likely to be out by late night of March 6 or early on March 7.
