Rastriya Swatantra Party Leads in Nepal Elections, Rapper-turned-Politician Balendra Shah Emerges as Strong Contender

The counting of votes for the Nepal elections shows that there is going to be a major upheaval in politics. Rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah's newly formed Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) is heading for a landslide victory on Friday in the first general elections held in Nepal after the violent Generation Z protests in September that forced the KP Sharma Oli-led government to step down. According to local media reports, the RSP has won three seats and is leading in 104 others, according to data available with the Election Commission from 144 constituencies out of a total of 165. Balendra Shah, the mayor of Kathmandu until recently, is leading in Jhapa-5 constituency, a stronghold of four-time prime minister and CPN-UML chairman Oli. Balen Shah got 6,551 votes, while Oli got only 1,428 votes. The 35-year-old engineer-turned-politician, known as'Balen ', has been the party's prime ministerial candidate for the past 18 years.