The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), led by rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, has emerged as one of the strongest players in the Nepal election.

According to results reported by The Kathmandu Post, the party has already won 25 seats under the first-past-the-post voting system. It is also leading in 93 additional constituencies as vote counting continues.

Thousands of young people in Nepal staged large protests in September 2025 against the country’s long-established political leadership. The demonstrations, largely driven by younger voters, eventually forced the government to step down.

Many observers described the movement as a Gen Z uprising and even called it a political “revolution.” The protests reflected widespread frustration with the country’s traditional political parties and long-standing leaders.

The first national election held after those protests has now produced a major political shift.

These results indicate a clear change in Nepal’s political landscape, with voters appearing to move away from the traditional political establishment that has dominated the country for decades.

Shah challenges Nepal’s traditional political elite

Balendra Shah built his political image by strongly criticising Nepal’s entrenched political class and long-standing party leadership.

The election results highlight this shift in public support. Shah is currently leading comfortably in his constituency, defeating veteran politician KP Sharma Oli, the chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist).

Oli, who served multiple terms as prime minister, was forced to resign from office after the mass protests led by young demonstrators in September 2025.

Shah leads comfortably in Oli’s stronghold

Shah is contesting from Jhapa-5, a constituency widely known as a political stronghold of KP Sharma Oli.

Current vote counts show Shah receiving more than 15,000 votes, while Oli has secured only about 3,300 votes so far.

The large gap between the two candidates highlights the changing political mood among voters.

Before entering national politics, Shah served as the Mayor of Kathmandu, where he gained popularity among young voters.

RSP leads proportional representation vote

Apart from the direct election system, Nepal also uses a proportional representation system to fill parliamentary seats.

So far, the Rastriya Swatantra Party is leading this category as well. The party has secured 35,091 votes, which accounts for about 57.2 percent of the 61,399 ballots counted so far.

This performance further strengthens the party’s position in the ongoing election.

How Nepal’s parliamentary system works

Nepal’s lower house of parliament has a total of 275 seats.

Out of these, 165 members are elected through the first-past-the-post system, where the candidate with the most votes in a constituency wins the seat. Vote counting in these races is still underway.

The remaining 110 seats will be distributed later through the proportional representation system, which allocates seats to parties based on their overall share of votes.

The final composition of the parliament will become clearer once counting in both systems is completed.