Balendra Shah, a candidate of the RSP from Jhapa Constituency-5, shows a certificate at the Election Commission premises after winning the constituency in the Nepal general elections in Jhapa, on March 7, 2026.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Balendra Shah, the rapper-turned-politician, handed a humiliating defeat to former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli in Jhapa-5, the latter’s home constituency, with a margin of 49,614.
Mr. Shah, popularly known as Balen, is set to become Nepal’s next Prime Minister, as his party, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), heads for a landslide victory in Thursday’s election — the first since last year’s Gen Z protests that toppled the Oli government.
Mr. Balen (35) secured 68,348 votes against Mr. Oli’s 18,734 in a race that never became competitive from the outset. This was a constituency where the CPN-UML leader had won six of the seven elections held since 1990.
Many see the RSP’s surge — with the party poised to win more seats than required for a simple majority — as a mix of people being attracted to the new party and fed up with the old guard, including Mr. Oli’s CPN-UML and the Nepali Congress.
Mr. Oli (74) had won the last election in 2022, garnering 52,310 votes and beating his closest rival by a margin of 28,576 votes.
Nepal held its elections on Thursday (March 5, 2026) following last September’s youth-led protests, in which 77 people lost their lives, including 19 who were killed in police firing on the first day, September 8.
Mr. Oli resigned the following day but never apologised for the killings.
As of now, the RSP has won 59 seats and is leading in 62 out of 165 constituencies.
The Nepali Congress is trailing far behind, with nine wins and leading in an equal number of constituencies. Similarly, Mr. Oli’s UML has won three seats and is leading in nine constituencies.
Under the proportional representation system, the RSP is far ahead with 256,680 votes (53%), while the Nepali Congress lags at 79,420 votes (16.59%) out of 478,834 votes counted so far. The UML has secured 63,003 votes (13%).
RSP chief Rabi Lamichhane was declared the winner earlier on Saturday in Chitwan-2, securing 54,402 votes and defeating his closest rival, Mina Kharel of the Nepali Congress, by a margin of 39,838 votes.
This marks his third consecutive win since 2022, the year he founded the party and contested his first election.
In the November 2022 elections, he won from the same constituency with 49,300 votes, beating his closest rival, Umesh Shrestha of Congress, by a margin of 34,312 votes.
After his parliamentary membership was revoked over his citizenship legality issue, a by-election was held in 2023, which he won with 54,176 votes, defeating his nearest rival by a margin of 49,962 votes.
Published – March 07, 2026 08:47 am IST
