Kathmandu. Balendra Shah has taken the oath as Nepal’s prime minister after sweeping the first election since deadly anti-corruption protests toppled the government last year. The 35-year-old was elected as the leader of the parliamentary party of the Rastriya Swatantra Party on Thursday, paving his way to become Nepal’s youngest elected prime minister.
“I, Balendra Shah, in the name of the country and people, pledge that I will be loyal to the constitution and fulfil my duty as the prime minister,” Shah said, dressed in skin-tight trousers, a matching jacket, his signature black Nepali cloth cap and sunglasses.
President Ram Chandra Poudel administered the oath of office after a ceremony involving scores of chanting Hindu priests and red-robed Buddhist monks. Shah is the first Madhesi — a person of the southern plains bordering India — in decades to lead the Himalayan nation that is wedged between Asian giants India and China.
Nepal chose former Kathmandu mayor and fresher Shah and his RSP to form the next government, decimating the traditional parties in the first general elections since last year’s violent Gen Z protests that sought generational change and a corruption-free regime. His RSP won 182 seats in the 275-member parliament in the March 5 election.
The Nepali Congress party, the country’s oldest party, became a distant second group in parliament with just 38 seats. The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) of Oli, who was forced to resign after the Gen Z unrest, controls 25 members.
