Nepal’s rapper turned mayor challenges ousted PM

Katmandu: Nepal’s rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah will go into a head-to-head election battle with the veteran prime minister he helped unseat, as he champions youth demands that toppled last year’s government.

The 35-year-old resigned last week as mayor of Katmandu to contest general elections, announcing Tuesday that he will directly challenge ousted prime minister KP Sharma Oli by running in the same constituency.

Nepal will hold general elections on March 5, the first since mass anti-corruption protests in September 2025 overthrew Oli, a 73-year-old Marxist leader and four-term prime minister.

“Contesting against a major figure… signals that I am not taking the easy way out,” Shah told AFP, ahead of his formal confirmation of candidacy.

“It demonstrates that, despite the problems or betrayals that have affected the country, we are moving toward addressing them,” he added.

Better known as Balen, the former mayor arrived for the interview at a Katmandu hotel dressed in black and wearing a traditional Nepali hat or “topi,” though he was without his trademark dark square sunglasses.

His hip-hop songs tackling corruption and inequality have drawn millions of views.

A civil engineer and rapper before joining politics, Shah stunned the political establishment in 2022 when he became the first independent candidate to be elected as Katmandu mayor.

He built a reputation as a sharp-tongued reformer, launching campaigns targeting tax evasion, traffic congestion, education and city waste.

Shah’s approach, however, drew criticism for heavy-handed enforcement and for communicating directly with his millions of social media followers rather than engaging with journalists.

“We made many processes that operated through informal arrangements transparent, through open procurement,” he said.