Nepal election: rapper-turned-politician Balen Shah poised to become next prime minister

2026-03-07 - 09:25

A 35-year-old rapper and engineer who entered politics just four years ago holds an unassailable lead over a former prime minister in Nepal’s crucial parliamentary election, in a contest widely seen as a referendum on a generational shift in leadership after last year’s youth uprising. Balendra Shah – the former Kathmandu mayor widely known as Balen – has surged ahead of 74-year-old communist leader K.P. Sharma Oli in a race for a seat in Nepal’s House of Representatives in the eastern district...