Kathmandu, March 6 Balendra Shah 'Balen', the rapper-turned-politician who won Kathmandu's 2022 mayoral elections as an independent, has become the face of a generational shift, symbolizing a break from Nepal's traditional parties.
Popular as 'Balen', the prime ministerial candidate of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), defeated four-time prime minister K P Sharma Oli, the chairman of Nepal's legacy party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) -- CPN-UML -- by a significant margin of approximately 50,000 votes in the Jhapa-5 constituency on Saturday.
The 35-year-old engineer was a popular choice to lead the interim government after Gen Z youth ousted the K P Sharma Oli-led coalition government in September last year, following two-day nationwide violent protests against corruption and a ban on social media.
However, Balen declined to lead the interim government, stating that he preferred to lead the government by contesting the parliamentary election for a full term.
In January, he joined the newly formed Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), led by Ravi Lamichhane, and was soon declared the party's prime ministerial candidate.
As the Kathmandu Metropolitan City Mayor, Balen is credited with sweeping reforms and the beautification of the metropolis.
In his resignation letter, Balen said, "As the Mayor of Kathmandu, I have performed my duty in an honest manner for the welfare of the metropolis and its inhabitants."
Born in Kathmandu to a family originally from the Madhesh province, Balen is the youngest son of Ram Narayan Shah, an Ayurved practitioner, and Dhruvadevi Shah, a homemaker. He has been passionate about music and poetry since a young age and turned to rap music during his education.
After completing a Civil Engineering degree from Kathmandu, Balen pursued his Masters in Structural Engineering from the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) in Karnataka.
He married Sabina Kafle in 2018, and the couple has a daughter born in 2023.
Balen's official YouTube page (@BalenShah with 'Rapper, Lyricist, Music Composer' as his description) has approximately a million subscribers.
Balen released his first single song, 'Sadak Balak', in 2012, when he was one year short of his matriculation. The very next year, he participated in a YouTube battle rap series, gaining widespread recognition across Nepal's music lovers.
Sudip Manandha, a young musician based in Kathmandu, who had closely followed Balen as a rapper, said, "Balen won the hearts of thousands of youths through his rap songs that usually targeted the existing system in our society. He used to sing satirical songs portraying social anomalies, exposing corruption and political mismanagement."
It was perhaps this popularity that the young leader capitalized on to enter politics and successfully contested the mayoral 2022 elections with his campaign slogan for 'change', targeting young people, most of whom were his followers on his social media platforms and were frustrated with the traditional parties' political maneuvering.
No wonder, when K P Sharma Oli banned social media in Nepal in 2025, Balen was amongst the prominent voices to protest the move.
Earlier, months after he won as an independent, Balen was named in the 'Top 100 Emerging Leaders of 2023' by Time magazine, which described how he ran his campaign using multiple social media platforms "to harness voter anger over the status quo."
"In a city still reeling from a deadly 2015 earthquake, Shah's campaign promises were simple but offered desperately needed fixes: better waste disposal and sanitation, safe drinking water, clean roads, and the preservation of cultural heritage alongside urban development," the magazine said.
Naveen Manandhar, ward chairman of ward 17 in the Kathmandu Metropolis, recalled the "good governance and transparency" that Balen introduced in the Kathmandu Metropolitan City during his three-and-a-half-year tenure.
He listed beautification of the capital by dismantling illegal structures, prioritizing health, education and employment generation, and allotting a specific number of free beds to poor people in different hospitals and health centres within the metropolis as some of Balen's achievements.
"Apart from that, Balen introduced skill-oriented extracurricular activities in the schools within the Kathmandu metropolis. Under his leadership, the Kathmandu metropolis introduced vocational training in various areas, which benefited around 60,000 to 70,000 youths within a couple of years, helping them to get employment in different fields," Manandhar said.
However, Balen's mayoral tenure was not without controversy. "He faced criticism when there were widespread demolitions in the capital. He was also accused of not sending a fire brigade when Gen Z protesters resorted to arson," said a critique.
Balen chose the Jhapa-5 constituency in eastern Nepal's Koshi province to take on the four-time prime minister Oli, who is also the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) chairman. While Balen represented the emerging youth force of Nepal, Oli was the face of the conservative old guard.
People identified Balen with his signature dark goggles and black blazer, but it was a small metal bell, the RSP symbol, that he carried to his political rallies and used during his speeches to warn the opposition.
Immediately after he joined the RSP, Balen chose to address a public meeting, calling it a 'Parivartan Udghosh Sabha' (Change Declaration Gathering) in Janakpur and spoke in Maithili to highlight his personal connection with the Madhesh province.
Expressing dissatisfaction that even after the introduction of federalism, power remained centralized in the capital city, Kathmandu, Balen said, "You should be travelling to Kathmandu to visit lord Pashupatinath or Swoyambhu Stupa, but not for government works."
The sentiment was reflected in the RSP's manifesto, called the 100-point commitment paper, which promised online government service delivery to be provided to the people and building a neutral, professional and accountable public service system by disassociating bureaucracy from politics.
