Kathmandu, March 7: Rastriya Swatantra Party senior leader Balen Shah has won the election from Jhapa Constituency No. 5.
According to the final results, Shah secured 68,348 votes. He defeated former Prime Minister and CPN UML chair KP Sharma Oli.
Oli received 18,724 votes. The margin between the two candidates stood at 49,614 votes.
Jhapa 5 became one of the most closely watched constituencies in this year’s election. The contest drew national attention after former Kathmandu Metropolitan City mayor Balen Shah decided to run from the seat against Oli.
Balendra Shah, 36, widely known as Balen, is an engineer by profession. Until about four years ago, he was known mainly among younger audiences as a rapper. His public profile rose sharply after he won the election as mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
During the 2022 local elections, he ran for mayor of Kathmandu as an independent candidate. At the time, many political analysts and media outlets did not take his candidacy seriously. The election result, though, showed that the thinking of voters in Nepali society was shifting.
After becoming mayor, Shah expanded his presence beyond the virtual space and built wider recognition across the country.
Born in Gaurigaun of Kathmandu, Shah is the son of Ayurvedic doctor Dr Ram Narayan Shah and Dhruva Devi Shah. He completed his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from White House Institute of Technology and later earned a master’s degree in structural engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka in India. He says his work has taken him to 65 districts across Nepal.
After the devastating earthquake of 2015, he took part in rescue and relief work, which helped him build a public image as a social worker.
Shah, who is popular among the younger generation as a professional, rapper, and poet writer, has also drawn strong attention for his political entry. Much of that attention first grew in the virtual space, especially on social media.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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