Nepal is set for a historic election. With 60% of the 1.6 crore voters under the age of 45, the March 5th election isn’t just about choosing a leader. After protests that claimed 77 lives and toppled a government, Nepal’s Gen Z is no longer just taking to the streets; they are taking to the ballot box to dismantle a political elite they say has failed them for decades.
At the heart of this challenge is Jhapa 5, a constituency hosting a ‘David vs. Goliath’ showdown that sounds like a movie script: a popular rapper-turned-mayor, Balen Shah, is walking directly into the “lion’s den” to take on four-time Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
Oli was forced to resign last year. He lost power and his government to a tsunami of a Gen Z-led protest that is hoping to make political capital of what started as a non-political movement.
Can a candidate with no traditional political ideology, but a reputation for getting traffic lights to work, actually topple the old guard? From the quiet, door-to-door campaigns in rural villages to the surprising whispers of support from unlikely quarters, in this edition of The Gist, Ketki Angre speaks to Surya Gangadharan, who spent close to a week in Nepal covering the election campaign, including in Jhapa-5.
Watch StratNews Global to dive deep into why this election is being called a ‘transformation’ rather than just a change.
