The verdict delivered by the people of Nepal in their parliamentary election is yet another indicator of the seismic shift taking place in South Asian politics.
The fledgling Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP), led by 35-year-old rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, has won 125 out of the 165 seats. This is a stupendous feat on two counts: This is the first time in Nepal’s history that any party has won a clear majority, let alone a two-thirds majority. Second, this was only the RSP’s second tilt at the elections, after a tentative foray in 2022.
The upstart party rode to victory on a wave of youth anger against the three established parties — the Nepal Congress, the CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal - Unified Marxist-Leninist), and the CPN-Maoist Centre — that have ruled the country for 36 years. Together, they represented the entire spectrum of ideologies offered to the people. That they have all been emphatically rejected — and a rank outlier chosen — gives an insight into what’s bubbling beneath in South Asia.
This outcome is a product of the leaderless Gen Z movement of 2025 in which young Nepalis rose against corruption, nepotism and elitism and literally kicked out every politician associated with old politics.
The spirit of that revolution was confirmed in these elections: Every major legal politician, except former Prime Minister Prachanda, once a firebrand revolutionary himself, has been defeated.
We have witnessed similar upheavals in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the past few years.
Although in both those countries, conventional parties were recalled to power after a popular uprising, the youth who mobilised the revolution retain a strong influence in current affairs.
In Bangladesh, after a student uprising ousted Sheikh Hasina in 2024, the long-dormant Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was brought back to power in the elections. But student groups continue to exert influence on major issues.
In Sri Lanka, the 2022 Aragalaya protests felled the Rajapaksas and brought the once-marginalised Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led alliance to power. However, the youth movement continues to be vigilant and vigorous.
Globally, too, there are plenty of signs that people are looking beyond the binary choice offered by traditional conservative and social democratic parties. In the UK, young adults are indicating a preference for Reform UK and the Greens, not the Tories and Labour.
In the US, progressive young politicians on the left are bidding to dislodge centrists in the Democratic Party, just as white nationalists elbowed aside old conservatives in the Republican Party.
In several countries in Europe, just as far-right parties outflanked traditional conservative parties, younger groups on the left are putting old social democrats and socialists out to pasture.
Unfortunately, such a departure has not yet happened in India. Nationally, the BJP and the Congress essentially have the field to themselves, trying out the same old tired ideas in election after election.
The insights available from Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka suggest the need to give youth a greater role in politics, not as aides to eminences grises but in leadership positions, deciding the destiny of parties.
This is not something that can be ushered in by merely spouting Gen Z lingo and having photo ops with young people, or even by adopting social media and data analytics technology. However, it’s not rocket science either. Old men only need to step aside.