Balen Shah’s newly founded Rashtriya Swatantra Party is now leading in the early counting of votes in Nepal's first general election since the Gen Z protests that took over the country.
The RSP has now won 3 seats and is leading in another 55 of the 165 constituencies, PTI reported.
Meanwhile, ousted former Prime Minister KP Oli Sharmas CPN (UML) is trailing behind, leading in just 4 seats. Meanwhile the Nepali Congress is leading in 8 seats.
Balendra Shah, known as just Balen Shah, 35, is now the youngest party leader contesting for prime minister in the country.
He was the first independent candidate to become mayor of Kathmandu.
After the Gen Z protests, the youth of Nepal turned to the The former rapper turned politician to ask him to contest the elections.
Some of Shah's earlier statements he made about India has led to him being deemed as anti-India in his stance. Incidentally, he completed his Masters on Structural Engineering at Visvesvaraya Technological University in Karnataka .
In 2023, he made it into the spotlight after he began urging for a ban on Indian movies in Nepal after alleging that a Bollywood movie had suggested that Sita, one of the major goddesses in Hinduism, was “India’s daughter.” According to Hindu texts, however, she was born in present day Nepal region or in north Bihar close to the border.
When asked about the same by Dainik Bhaskar, he said, “In Bollywood films, Pakistan is always shown as a place of guns and bombs. Because of this, citizens of Sri Lanka and Nepal are afraid to visit Pakistan, thinking only terrorists live there. This should be opposed.”
The same year, he became subject to controversy after he placed a map of “Greater Nepal” in his office. The map showed Nepal's borders extending beyond present day borders to also include territories that were once under Nepali rule before the 1816 treat of Sugaulli.
The move was reportedly a symbolic response to an ‘Akanda Bharat mural which was displayed i the Parliamentary building in India, which also claimed many parts of Nepal as part of India.
On the issue, he said, “I never said anything for which I should apologise. India called its parliamentary map a cultural one, so we put up a historical map of Greater Nepal. No one should object.”
In 2025, he raised eyebrows after he made a post that included a swear word used against opposition political parties in Nepal and multiple countries, including India, China and the US.
He later deleted the post after it drew flak for straining the country's relations with foreign nations.
One of the parties that was also mentioned in that post was the RSP. He joined the party after quitting as Kathmandu mayor last year to contest the elections.
