When new guards readied to lead Nepal
Nava Thakuria
March 15, 2026
When most of the veterans and their parties failed to impress the electorates of Nepal in the recently conducted single day polling on 5 March 2026, a relatively new party and young leaders earned mandates in the Himalayan republic. Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which was formed in the middle of 2022, recorded a resounding victory in the election necessitated by the violent youth uprising in September 2025 that shook the south Asian nation of 30 million people and collapsed the government in Kathmandu. The party with young leader Balendra Shah as its prime ministerial candidate won in 125 seats out of 165 constituencies where polling was conducted to fill up the 275-member House of Representatives. Balendra, the engineer-turned-rapper-turned politician even defeated his nearest rival KP Sharma Oli, the veteran Marxist in his home turf (Jhapa-5 constituency of eastern Nepal). The former Kathmandu mayor defeated Oli by a margin of around 50,000 votes in the electoral battles. Mentionable is that the four-time premier, who leads the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) was ousted last year during the deadly anti-corruption uprising.
The CPN-UML was restricted to 9 seats only, whereas the Hindu majority republic’s oldest party Nepali Congress (NC) emerged a distant second with 18 constituencies. According to the Nepal Election Commission, Nepali Communist Party (NCP, a combination of Maoist parties) succeeded in 7 seats followed by Shram Sanskriti Party (3) and pro-monarchist Rastriya Prajatantra Party (1). RSP chairman Rabi Lamichhane and Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda, who led the anti-monarchy violent movement (1996 to 2006) and fought the electoral battle with an NCP candidate won in their respective constituencies. However, NC president Gagan Thapa lost the battle. More than 60 % of total 19 million Nepali voters exercised their franchise in the election, where 10 women candidates (nine nominated by RSP and one by NC) also emerged victorious. The remaining 110 seats in the Parliament are elected by the proportional voting system, where the RSP received altogether 5,183,493 votes and thus earned additional 57 seats. The NC got 1,759,172 votes to earn 20 more seats. The CPN-UML with 1,455,885 votes got 16 seats, followed by NCP (811,577 votes 9 seats), SSP (385,856 votes 4 seats) and RPP (330,684 votes 4 seats).
Conducted under the mentorship of interim premier Sushila Karki, who once served Nepal Supreme Court as its chief justice and was sworn in on 12 September 2025 as first woman Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, the election was peaceful. When President Ramchandra Paudel will appoint Balendra as the new premier of Nepal, he is supposed to be one of the youngest heads of Nepal government and first one from Madhesh province. Located in the southeastern region, bordering Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the province is believed by Sanatani Hindus to be the birthplace of Maa Sita (of great epic Ramayana era) when it was known as Janakpur.
Earlier, the Maithili speaking politician attracted global media attention by withdrawing the China-backed Damak project in Jhapa district from the election manifesto. Strategically located near to Siliguri corridor (Chicken’s neck), the project (lately renamed as Nepal-China Friendship Industrial Park) is linked to Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, which was considered as an annoying development for New Delhi. Otherwise, Balendra promised to follow Nepal-First policy while dealing with foreign nations. He also pledged to create 1.2 million jobs to address the growing unemployment problem and frustration among the Nepali youths and establish social safety measures including healthcare insurance facilities and other welfare initiatives to the entire Nepali population.
Political observers in Kathmandu believe that the election signaled a thorough rejection of communists aligned political parties, which used to rule the country for the last two decades. It may bring positive news for New Delhi to reset the tie with Kathmandu, which was strained in all the years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was prompt to personally call the RSP leaders and reaffirmed New Delhi’s commitment to work with the new government for mutual prosperity, progress and well-being of both the countries. Earlier, Modi congratulated the people of Nepal and the interim government in Kathmandu for the successful completion of the 2026 general election saying that as a close neighbour, India remains steadfast in its commitment to working closely with the people of Nepal and their new government to scale new heights of shared peace, progress and prosperity.
(Tripurainfo)
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