Two popular leaders have formed an alliance ahead of Nepal’s March general election that will challenge the older parties that have dominated the Himalayan nation’s politics for more than three decades, party officials and analysts said Monday.
Rapper-turned-Kathmandu mayor Balendra Shah, known as Balen, a popular elected official, joined the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), or National Independent Party, led by former TV host-turned-politician Rabi Lamichhane on Sunday, party officials said.
They said under the agreement with the RSP, 35-year-old Balen will become prime minister if the RSP wins the March 5 election, while Lamichhane will remain party chief.
Both have promised to meet the demands raised during the “Gen Z” or youth-led protests against widespread corruption in September, which killed 77 people and led to the resignation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
“It is a very smart and strategic move by the RSP to bring Balen and his young supporters into its fold,” said analyst Bipin Adhikari.
“Traditional political parties are in pain for fear of losing their young voters to the RSP,” he said.
The Election Commission says nearly 19 million of Nepal’s 30 million people are eligible to vote in the election. Almost a million voters – mostly young people – were added after the protests.
Balen was in the spotlight after the protests and was an undeclared leader of the youth who led the protests in September.
He also helped form former Chief Justice Sushila Karki’s caretaker government to oversee the poll.
Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist), or UML, and the centrist Nepali Congress Party have shared power between them for most of the past three decades and are likely to be challenged by Balen.
