Kathmandu, Nepal \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>Facing thousands of raucous supporters, 35-year-old Balendra Shah lifted his signature black rectangular sunglasses, asked his audience to look him in the eye, and said: \u201cI love you.\u201d<\/p>\n It is a sentiment that millions of young Nepalis appear to reciprocate.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Balen \u2013 as he is popularly known \u2013 was a nobody until 2013, when he almost overnight became a rap sensation. Nearly a decade later, in May 2022, he stunned Nepal\u2019s deeply entrenched mainstream political parties by winning the post of mayor of Kathmandu, the country\u2019s capital, while contesting as an independent.<\/p>\n When the Himalayan nation of 30 million people erupted in popular protests against the government of then-Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in September 2025, Balen emerged as a high-profile backer of the protesters. He was the first choice of many Gen Z activists to take over as interim leader after Oli was forced to resign. But he instead supported former Supreme Court Chief Justice Sushila Karki for the post. It is now evident that this was a tactical move.<\/p>\n As Nepal heads to its first election since the protests last year, and Karki\u2019s brief term ends, Balen is positioning himself as the future prime minister the country needs. And true to style, he is doing it with a bang: He is contesting the parliamentary elections from Jhapa-5, a seat about 300km (186 miles) southeast of Kathmandu, against Oli, the man protesters deposed just five months ago.<\/p>\n On the surface, the odds appear stacked against him. The region is a stronghold of Oli and the Communist Party of Nepal \u2013 Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), which the former prime minister heads. Balen is contesting as a candidate of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), a centrist party formed less than four years ago, which won 10 percent of the national vote in the last elections in 2022.<\/p>\n Balen\u2019s volatile public communication \u2013 he has abused mainstream parties, India, China and the United States, and threatened to burn down symbols of power in Nepal \u2013 has sparked criticism and questions over whether he is ready for high office.<\/p>\n But Balen defied the pundits when he won the Kathmandu mayoralty. And observers and analysts say that for many Nepalis, he represents a breath of fresh air in a country where more than 40 percent of the population is under the age of 35, but where the leadership of all major parties is in its 70s.<\/p>\n \u201cYoung Nepalis see him as a decisive actor, who is not beholden to traditional political or business interests,\u201d Pranaya Rana, a journalist who writes for the Kalam Weekly newsletter, told Al Jazeera. \u201cMany admire his macho public persona and his willingness to take on entrenched political patronage networks.\u201d<\/p>\n If young\u00a0Nepal\u00a0burned with anger in September, when protesters clashed with security forces and attacked senior politicians after a crackdown by authorities under Oli, Balen was still seething with rage two months later.<\/p>\n In a midnight post on Facebook in November, he lashed out: \u201cF*** America, F*** India, F*** China, F*** UML, F*** Congress, F*** RSP, F*** RPP, F*** Maobaadi. You Guys all Combined can do nothing\u201d, venting against the popular political parties and even nations that have close ties to Nepal. Being the Kathmandu mayor at the time, he deleted the post less than half an hour later.<\/p>\n Then in January, he quit as mayor and joined the RSP, one of the parties he cursed in the Facebook post. More recently, after Oli called on Facebook for a public debate among prime ministerial candidates of major parties, Balen rejected the suggestion and asked the ex-prime minister to take responsibility for the dozens of civilians killed during the Gen Z protests in September. He asked Oli to acknowledge that he was a \u201cterrorist\u201d.<\/p>\n Over the top? Not to many\u00a0Nepalis.<\/p>\n The rapper-turned-politician\u2019s confrontational style and rhetoric appear to have only endeared him to large sections of the youth. His beard and dandy, all-black clothing style \u2013 he occasionally wears the traditional Newari dress of the ethnic inhabitants of the Kathmandu valley \u2013 coupled with his trademark dark glasses, have become fashion symbols.<\/p>\n Kathmandu shops once ran out of the kind of black rectangular glasses he wears. Many online stores, including Daraz, the most popular seller in Nepal, still carry multiple choices of these shades, calling them \u201cBalen Shah glasses\u201d.<\/p>\n Unlike traditional politicians, Balen mainly stays away from mainstream media. Instead, he communicates with the wider public through podcasts, television shows where he is a judge, or through his favourite platform: social media. His 3.5 million followers on Facebook, 1 million on Instagram, 400,000 on X and nearly 1 million on YouTube give him an online audience unmatched in Nepal.<\/p>\n This is valuable capital with a generation constantly on their phones.<\/p>\n Yet Balen first made waves not as a politician, but as an upstart musician who shook Nepal.<\/p>\n The youngest of four siblings, Balen was born in 1990 in Kathmandu. Balen\u2019s father, Ram Narayan Shah \u2013 who passed away in December \u2013 was a government practitioner of ayurveda, the ancient Hindu healing system.<\/p>\n In an interview with Al Jazeera in September \u2013 three months before his death \u2013 Shah recalled Balen as a \u201cbright and simple\u201d child. The father\u2019s work took him away from home frequently, but one clear memory from Balen\u2019s childhood stuck out for Shah: \u201cHe wrote poems. I remember that, because I also wrote poems.\u201d<\/p>\n Balen graduated with a civil engineering degree from Himalayan Whitehouse International College in Kathmandu and received a postgraduate degree in structural engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) in Karnataka, India.<\/p>\n Then, in 2013, he engineered his first major career transition. The setting was a popular rap battle in Nepal, called Raw Barz, in which two contestants face-off live against each other. One of the organisers of the competition, who requested anonymity, told Al Jazeera that Yama Buddha, a popular rapper who has since passed away, recommended Balen to him.<\/p>\n Balen won the rap battle, gaining instant popularity. \u201cMore than a rapper, he was a poet. He was very good lyrically, and talked about suppressed [people],\u201d the contest organiser recalled.<\/p>\n In 2021, Shah announced his candidature for the mayoral election and revealed that he had been plotting the run for at least two years. He swept the election, winning 61,767 votes, defeating candidates from the major political parties, the Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal (UML), who received 38,341 and 38,117 votes, respectively.<\/p>\n As mayor, according to his aide and press coordinator, Surendra Bajgain, Shah would arrive at his office at the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) at about 10am. He would first meet all the department heads, go through files, \u201cseek clarity\u201d on questions he had, and then sign files, Bajgain told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n He would wear his trademark black jacket and pants, and black shades, every day to the office. He would remove his glasses inside the office, Bajgain said. \u201cBut you\u2019ll see him in those glasses when taking pictures or in public,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n As a mayor, he lived in government-provided accommodation in the heart of Kathmandu with his wife and an infant daughter. A gym regular, he preferred lunch at home, but would sip on endless cups of tea and coffee in the office.<\/p>\n To get away from the public gaze, Balen \u201cloves to go on long rides outside the valley, because here, people surround him very often in public,\u201d Bajgain said.<\/p>\n His passion for cars also landed him in controversy, widely circulated online, when he was seen driving an expensive Land Rover Defender worth 40 million Nepali rupees ($275,0000) in January, while campaigning in Jhapa 5, his electoral constituency, for the March 5 election.<\/p>\n Given his strong anticorruption image, the sight of him in a high-end luxury vehicle drew heightened scrutiny. Critics accused him of a lack of transparency over the vehicle\u2019s ownership and use, while some pointed out that, despite promoting modesty in public office, he rarely used public transport as the mayor. The car, it turned out, had been given to him by a wealthy businessman for use during his campaign.<\/p>\n Balen is now also pursuing a PhD in traditional infrastructure at Kathmandu University. But he is far from a reluctant public figure, nor is he an ivory-tower researcher.<\/p>\n Balen\u2019s songs, which mock political parties, criticise corruption and talk of the sacrifices of everyday Nepalis, have been the soundtrack to the efforts by Nepal\u2019s Gen Z to reshape the country\u2019s politics in recent months.<\/p>\n One song, Nepal Haseko (Nepal Smiling), became an anthem during last year\u2019s protests, and already has more than 10 million views on YouTube. In the song, children sing in the chorus: \u201cI want to see Nepal smiling; I want to see Nepalis living happily.\u201d<\/p>\n Another song, Balidan (Sacrifice) has 14 million views on YouTube. It talks about impunity and corruption. On the Discord server \u201cYouth Against Corruption\u201d, where Gen Z protesters picked the country\u2019s interim leader after Oli\u2019s resignation in September, the name \u201cBalen\u201d was mentioned 16,328 times \u2014 far more than anyone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n But Balen also has his critics.<\/p>\n In 2023, when Balen was mayor, his wife was in his official vehicle when a traffic policeman stopped it. Balen was not in the car. The government-plated vehicle was being used on a public holiday, which gives traffic personnel the right to ask the purpose of the vehicle use and whether the driver has a permit for it.<\/p>\n On social media, Balen blew up about the incident: \u201cIf any of our KMC vehicles are stopped by the government from tomorrow, I will set the Singha Durbar on fire. Remember, you thief government\u201d. Singha Durbar houses many administrative offices along with the Prime Minister\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n The Oli government initially wanted to charge him for the incendiary statement, but backed off \u2013 Balen\u2019s comment on social media had drawn support. It was a sign of things to come. During the Gen Z uprising in September, Singha Durbar was severely damaged after being set on fire.<\/p>\n In another instance, in 2023, after India installed a mural of \u201cAkhand Bharat\u201d (a Greater India) \u2013 encompassing many of its neighbours \u2013 Shah hung a \u201cGreater Nepal\u201d map in his office, including territories that once belonged to Nepal but now lie within India\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n The move instantly escalated into a diplomatic hurdle. Shah was accused of going beyond his mandate as a municipal leader and stoking nationalist sentiment for political gains. His supporters, however, hailed his move as an assertive counter to foreign dominance.<\/p>\n In 2023, Balen also banned the screening of Indian films in Kathmandu, alleging that an Indian movie had suggested that Sita, one of Hinduism\u2019s most revered goddesses, was born in India. In fact, she was born in present-day Nepal according to Hindu scriptures.<\/p>\n As Kathmandu mayor, Balen bulldozed illegal structures and ordered rubbish to be dumped outside government offices. He temporarily halted waste collection from Singha Durbar. The move was a riposte to what he argued was the central government\u2019s failure to coordinate with the city to address Kathmandu\u2019s chronic waste management crisis.<\/p>\n Yet to many belonging to the generation most hungry for change in Nepal, Balen has an allure no one else appears to have.<\/p>\n Aayal Sah, a 20-year-old first-time voter, is a resident of Janakpur \u2013 where Sita, the Hindu Goddess, is believed to have been born. He took three of his friends to see Balen\u2019s first public appearance after joining the RSP. \u201cI cannot directly vote for Balen as he is not contesting from our area, but I\u2019ll surely vote for his party,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n Rana, the journalist at Kalam Weekly, said that for many, Balen \u201cembodies the outsider spirit that many young Nepalis are looking for to shake up the status quo\u201d.<\/p>\n Yet, Rana acknowledged, questions over Balen\u2019s ability to lead Nepal linger as the country heads to elections. \u201cA primary concern for most critics is Balen\u2019s immaturity and his refusal to engage with the public. During his time as mayor, he gave no interviews to local media and did not answer any questions,\u201d Rana told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n After Oli quit office, when Gen Z protesters voted most for Balen to take over as interim leader on Discord, the then-mayor was not available on the phone when the youth movement\u2019s leaders tried to reach him to see if he would take charge of the nation.<\/p>\n That, say analysts, was yet another example of Balen\u2019s communication style: It is always one way, at his time and place of choosing.<\/p>\n But for many young Nepalis like Sah, the Janakpur resident, none of these chinks in Balen\u2019s public life matter. \u201cIt\u2019s the trust he has gained among the young people,\u201d Sah said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is the only one who can take the country forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kathmandu, Nepal \u2013\u00a0Facing thousands of raucous supporters, 35-year-old Balendra Shah lifted his signature black rectangular sunglasses, asked his audience to look him in the eye, and said: \u201cI love you.\u201d It is a sentiment that millions of young Nepalis appear to reciprocate. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Balen \u2013 as he is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-01-19T150100Z_1126324550_RC2E4JA8VGBD_RTRMADP_3_NEPAL-POLITICS-1772414349.jpg?resize=770%2C549&quality=80\")
The craze<\/h2>\n
![\"Balendra](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-02-28T104623Z_1155674821_RC2YUJAJH5TB_RTRMADP_3_NEPAL-ELECTION-SHAH-1772414473.jpg?resize=770%2C528&quality=80\")
Big cars, bigger songs<\/h2>\n
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\u2018Set on fire\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP26057278087873-1772414670.jpg?resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
\u2018Shake up the status quo\u2019<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"