Kathmandu, March 27: Rapper-turned-politician Balen Shah has become Nepal’s youngest democratically elected Prime Minister. At 36, he has reached the country’s top executive position.
Born on April 27, 1990, in Nardevi, Kathmandu, Shah was elected from Jhapa-5 in the recent House of Representatives election. He defeated former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, chair of CPN-UML, by a wide margin of 49,614 votes, securing his rise to the premiership.
Shah won 68,348 votes, while his closest rival Oli, received 18,734.
Before this, Shah served as Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City. He resigned from the post on January 18, 2026, and joined the Rastriya Swatantra Party, which had projected him as its prime ministerial candidate during the election campaign.
On the occasion of Ram Navami, Shah took the oath of office at an auspicious time of 12:34 pm, following Sanatan Vedic and Buddhist traditions. The ceremony included chants by 108 young Brahmin students, recitations by 16 Buddhist monks, and the blowing of seven conch shells.
Shah has also made history as the first Prime Minister of Madhesi origin in a political system long dominated by Brahmin and Chhetri leadership.
Nepal’s first Prime Minister is widely regarded as Bhimsen Thapa, who ruled from 1806 to 1837 for 31 years and became Mukhtiyar at the age of 32. In the 219 years from Thapa to Shah, Jung Bahadur Rana became Prime Minister at the youngest age, 31, though the system was not democratic at the time. Among 40 प्रधानमन्त्रिस in this period, only Marich Man Singh Shrestha came from a Janajati community.
During the Panchayat era, Tulsi Giri became Prime Minister at 33 under King Mahendra’s patronage. The oldest elected Prime Ministers were Manmohan Adhikari and Sushil Koirala, both aged 74 when they assumed office. Pushpa Kamal Dahal was 54 when he became the first Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic in 2008.
After 35 years of repeated leadership by the same figures from traditional parties following the 1990 political change, Nepal has now, for the first time, a new and younger Prime Minister. With Shah’s appointment, the country has, after 52 years, a Prime Minister under 40.
Shah, the youngest son of Dr. Ram Narayan Shah and Dhruva Devi Shah, lives in Gairigaun, Sinamangal, Kathmandu. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from White House Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in Structural Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University in Karnataka, India.
After the 2015 earthquake, he actively engaged in rescue and relief efforts, also contributing as a volunteer map-maker.
He married Sabina Kafle eight years ago; she is a public health professional.
From a young age, Shah was interested in music and poetry. While studying in Grade 9, he released his first song “Sadak Balak” in 2012. Alongside rap and engineering, he maintained a strong interest in politics.
In the 2017 local elections, he had planned to run from Bibeksheel Nepali, but later withdrew and publicly announced he would not vote.
In April 2022, Shah announced his candidacy for Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, claiming he would secure 90,835 votes. Many dismissed the claim at the time. However, he went on to defeat strong candidates, including Keshav Sthapit of UML and Srijana Singh of the Nepali Congress, rising rapidly in national prominence.
People’s News Monitoring Service
Login to add a comment