Rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah is Nepal's rising star in politics
KATHMANDU: Balendra Shah 'Balen', the rapper-turned-politician who won Kathmandu's 2022 mayoral polls as an independent, has become the face of a generational change, symbolising 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 chair of Nepal's legacy party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) -- CPN-UML -- by a huge margin of about 50,000 votes in Jhapa-5 constituency on Saturday.
The 35-year-old engineer was a popular choice to lead the interim government after Gen Z youths toppled 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.
But Balen declined then to lead the interim government, saying he would rather head 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 reform programmes 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 as far as possible for the welfare of the metropolis and its inhabitants.”
Born in Kathmandu in a family originally from Madhesh province, Balen is the youngest son of Ram Narayan Shah, an Ayurved practitioner, and Dhruvadevi Shah, a homemaker. He was keen on music and poetry from a young age and turned to rap music during his education days.
After completing a Civil Engineering degree from Kathmandu, Balen did his Masters in Structural Engineering from the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) in Karnataka.
He married Sabina Kafle in 2018, and the couple has a 2023-born daughter.
Balen's official YouTube page (@BalenShah with 'Rapper, Lyricist, Music Composer' as his description) lists about 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.
“His songs always reflect the ground struggle, social themes and raise issues such as corruption and inequality that matter the most for common Nepali,” said a college student.
It was this popularity that he capitalised on to enter politics and successfully contested the mayoral 2022 polls with his campaign slogan for 'change', targeting youngsters, most of them his followers on his social media platforms and were getting fed up with traditional parties' musical chair politics.
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.
However, his mayoral tenure was not without controversy. “He faced flak 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 most of the time, 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 centralised 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.