Former Prime Minister of Nepal KP Sharma Oli has lost from Jhapa-5 seat. Former mayor and rapper Balen Shah of Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP) defeated him by about 50 thousand votes. Counting of votes is underway and initial trends show RSP heading for a landslide victory on 165 seats. The Election Commission of Nepal has declared these results.
Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP)’s Balen Shah and CPN-UML chairman Oli were contesting from Jhapa-5 seat. Here Balen Shah got 68,348 votes, while KP Sharma Oli got 18,734 votes. In this way, Shah has achieved a big victory by defeating him by a total of 49,614 votes. He had achieved success from this seat in 2017 and 2022.
According to The Kathmandu Post, Shah’s victory attracted national attention as the RSP had already declared him the party’s prime ministerial candidate.
Senior RSP leader Shah contested the elections against Oli. Oli had defeated Khagendra Adhikari of Nepali Congress by a margin of 28,576 votes in the 2022 elections.
Balen, the former mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City from May 2022, entered national politics after resigning in January 2026. Born in a Madhesi family in Nardevi, Kathmandu, Shah is the son of late Ram Narayan Shah, a well-known Ayurvedic physician.
Before entering national politics, Shah was active in rescue operations after the 2015 Gorkha earthquake. He started his music career in 2012 as a well-known rapper, songwriter and music producer.
Shah, initially associated with the Bibeksheel Party, won the 2022 Kathmandu mayoral election as an independent candidate and later joined the RSP in late 2025. Led the campaign in the 2026 general elections and established himself as a major contender for the post of Prime Minister of Nepal.
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