The campaign that sidelined Nepal’s established political heavyweights and propelled 35-year-old rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah to the brink of power took shape in the upper floors of a six-storey building in western Kathmandu.
Shah is the candidate for prime minister from the Rastriya Swatantra Party, which is leading the vote count two days after Nepal’s first election since youth-led protests in September forced the previous elected government out of power.
The final results for 165 seats in direct, first-past-the-post tallies and 110 seats through proportional representation are expected by next week, according to the election commission.
And if current trends hold, Shah – or Balen, as he is better known – will have successfully harnessed a wave of support unleashed by the September uprising with one of the most sophisticated campaigns ever seen in the small Himalayan nation.
Shah’s stunning performance stands in contrast with Bangladesh’s election last month, where a youth-driven party fizzled at the polls after emerging out of the “Gen-Z” protests that unseated the country’s long-serving premier in 2024.
Speech Every Eight Days
The heart of RSP’s political machine is the Research, Strategy and Documentation Department, run by an 11-member board overseeing 300 party workers divided into three national groups that supplement smaller teams led by individual candidates.
These national-level teams plan election tactics, organise rallies, create and manage online content, and track ground-level campaigning and feedback from across Nepal, three officials said.
In the run-up to Thursday’s vote, the party also followed a carefully calibrated media strategy, with Shah delivering a major speech every eight days, allowing enough time for each rally to be amplified by a 660-strong social media team.
The RSP also held road shows in five to seven districts each day, backed by daily brief appearances in one of Nepal’s seven provinces where Shah would meet and connect with the voters.
The centralised campaign system and large events were funded directly by the party, which has received large donations from Nepalis living abroad, particularly from those in the United States, according to two officials.
But individual candidates were responsible for organising and financing their own campaign events, said RSP’s Treasurer Lima Adhikari.
Plains To The Hills
Before he joined RSP in December ahead of the polls, Shah served as the mayor of Kathmandu, a position he had won in 2022 by leveraging his popularity as one of Nepal’s biggest rap stars, with millions of followers on social media.
Shah’s January speech went viral on social media, underlining the early success of the RSP’s bet that he could become the first leader from the plains to secure the premiership, three party officials said.
Shah is contesting the election from Jhapa-5, a constituency in the plains that has long been part of the home turf of K.P. Sharma Oli, who quit as prime minister in the wake of the September protests.
In this rural pocket of Nepal, Shah has stuck with his unorthodox campaign playbook, shunning sit-down media interviews, making impromptu stops to talk with voters, and forming a group of youth volunteers across the constituency.
Part of his team, reinforced by the RSP campaign in Kathmandu, has also been collecting voter feedback and complaints, including on development projects and general governance.
“People from every part of Nepal will feel that the government is theirs and most importantly, that it is there for them,” said D.P. Aryal, RSP’s vice chairperson, adding that Shah’s administration will look to bring in outside experts to bolster its capacity.
“Youth engagement and the maximum integration of technology will also be among our top priorities.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
