Inside the Nepal campaign that could vault Balendra Shah to power

KATHMANDU, March 7 (Reuters) – The campaign that swept aside Nepal’s established political heavyweights and brought 35-year-old rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah to the cusp of power emerged out of the top floors of a six-story building in west Kathmandu.

Shah is the candidate for prime minister from the Rastriya Swatantra Party, which is leading the vote count two days after Nepal’s first election since youth-led protests in September forced the previous elected government out of power.

The final results for 165 seats in direct, first-past-the-post tallies and 110 seats through proportional representation are expected by next week, according to the election commission.

And if current trends hold, Shah – or Balen, as he is better known – will have successfully harnessed a wave of support unleashed by the September uprising with one of the most sophisticated campaigns ever seen in the small Himalayan nation.

Reuters interviewed six RSP officials to gain insight into Shah’s campaign, much of it coordinated out of the top three floors of the party’s headquarters in the capital city’s Balaju neighbourhood and heavily bankrolled by the Nepali diaspora.

“We are overwhelmed by the support and love we received from people on the ground,” said Bigyan Gautam, a member of RSP’s national campaign team.

Shah’s stunning performance stands in contrast with Bangladesh’s election last month, where a youth-driven party fizzled at the polls after emerging out of the “Gen-Z” protests that unseated the country’s long-serving premier in 2024.

SPEECH EVERY EIGHT DAYS

The heart of RSP’s political machine is the Research, Strategy and Documentation Department, run by an 11-member board overseeing 300 party workers divided into three national groups that supplement smaller teams led by individual candidates.

These national-level teams plan election tactics, organise rallies, create and manage online content, and track ground-level campaigning and feedback from across Nepal, three officials said.

In the run-up to Thursday’s vote, the party also followed a carefully calibrated media strategy, with Shah delivering a major speech every eight days, allowing enough time for each rally to be amplified by a 660-strong social media team.

The RSP also held road shows in five to seven districts each day, backed by daily brief appearances in one of Nepal’s seven provinces where Shah would meet and connect with the voters.

“If you keep giving speeches, people get confused,” a party official said, asking not to be named. “We let opposition parties raise some issues, and then respond once. This way, our message stays clear.”

The centralised campaign system and large events were funded directly by the party, which has received large donations from Nepalis living abroad, particularly from those in the United States, according to two officials.

But individual candidates were responsible for organising and financing their own campaign events, said RSP’s Treasurer Lima Adhikari.

PLAINS TO THE HILLS

Before he joined RSP in December ahead of the polls, Shah served as the mayor of Kathmandu, a position he had won in 2022 by leveraging his popularity as one of Nepal’s biggest rap stars, with millions of followers on social media.

On January 19, Shah stood with RSP founder and TV host-turned-politician Rabi Lamichhane at a rally in the capital city of Nepal’s Madhesh province and told the thousands gathered: “A Madhesi boy is going to become prime minister.”

Although Madhesh and the surrounding Terai plains are the most populous regions of Nepal, the country has long been dominated by political elites from Kathmandu and its mountainous belt.

Shah’s January speech went viral on social media, underlining the early success of the RSP’s bet that he could become the first leader from the plains to secure the premiership, three party officials said.

“It was very clear to us that the nation was fed up with the old corrupt leaders and they were seeing hope in young leaders like Balen Shah and Rabi Lamichhane,” said Birendra Kumar Mehta, a member of RSP’s central committee.

“The party saw this as an opportunity.”

Shah himself is contesting the election from Jhapa-5, a constituency in the plains that has long been part of the home turf of K.P. Sharma Oli, who quit as prime minister in the wake of the September protests.

In this rural pocket of Nepal, Shah has stuck with his unorthodox campaign playbook, shunning sit-down media interviews, making impromptu stops to talk with voters, and forming a group of youth volunteers across the constituency.

Part of his team, reinforced by the RSP campaign in Kathmandu, has also been collecting voter feedback and complaints, including on development projects and general governance.

“People from every part of Nepal will feel that the government is theirs and most importantly, that it is there for them,” said D.P. Aryal, RSP’s vice chairperson, adding that Shah’s administration will look to bring in outside experts to bolster its capacity.

“Youth engagement and the maximum integration of technology will also be among our top priorities.”

(Reporting by Saurabh Sharma and Sahana Bajracharya; Additional reporting by Gopal Sharma; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Tom Hogue)