‘This Time, History Is Being Made’: Rapper-Turned Politician Balendra Shah Sworn In As Nepal’s 47th Prime Minister, Becomes Youngest Leader In The Nation

At a special ceremony on Friday at the Office of the President, Balendra Shah “Balen” took the oath of office as prime minister of Nepal. Following Shah’s appointment earlier in the day in accordance with Article 76(1) of the Constitution, Nepal President Ramchandra Paudel administered the oath of office and secrecy.

Balendra Shah Sworn In As Nepal’s 47th Prime Minister

Vice President Ram Sahaya Prasad Yadav, Chief Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut, National Assembly Chair Narayan Prasad Dahal, former prime ministers, high-ranking officials, security leaders, and members of the diplomatic community also attended the event. As Nepal’s 47th prime minister, Balen is among the youngest leaders of the Himalayan country. Balen also took the oath of secrecy as a member of the House of Representatives (HoR) earlier on Thursday afternoon. The unimaginable Balendra “Balen” Shah, a structural engineer with a distinctive pair of black rectangular eyeglasses and a background in the underground rap culture, overthrew Nepal’s established political system in 2022 to take office as mayor of Kathmandu. Balen easily defeated veterans of the Nepali Congress with 61,767 votes while running as an independent under the emblem of a walking stick. Keshav Sthapit, the CPN-UML candidate and former capital mayor, received 38,117 votes, while Sirjana Singh received 38,341. Four years later, the 35-year-old is one of the youngest prime ministers in the history of the country and is no longer merely a local phenomenon. In the meantime, the newly elected members of Nepal’s new Parliament took the oath of office and secrecy at their first meeting following the elections earlier this month on Thursday. Following the Gen-Z revolt, the previous Parliament was dissolved in September 2025. The MPs were sworn in by Arjun Narsingh KC, a member of the Nepali Congress and the most senior member of the House of Representatives. The Federal Parliament’s under-construction multifunctional hall in Singha Durbar served as the venue for the ceremony.

Nepal’s new Parliament took the oath of office

Under the Proportional Representation system, 57 lawmakers were elected from the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), 20 from the Nepali Congress (NC), 16 from the CPN (UML), nine from the Nepali Communist Party (NCP), and four each from the Shram Sanskriti Party and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP). On March 16, the PR election results were declared by the Election Commission. The RSP won 125 seats under the First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system, followed by the NC with 19, UML with 9, NCP with 8, Shram Sanskriti Party with 3, RPP with 1, and one independent. The House of Representatives, the lower house of the Federal Parliament, has 275 members in total, 165 chosen by the FPTP method and 110 by the PR system, in accordance with constitutional restrictions. 

(With Inputs From ANI)

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