A few blocks from Nepal’s parliament – still blackened from the fires set during last September’s Gen Z protests – Ranju Darshana sat on a plastic chair outside a vote-counting centre in Kathmandu.
Around her, supporters of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) chanted slogans and rang small brass bells, which has become the party’s election symbol.
Darshana looked exhausted but calm. The 30-year-old candidate had given birth to a baby boy just a week earlier and campaigned while heavily pregnant. In a photo taken on March 5, she is seen holding the baby wrapped in a blanket while wearing a woollen sweater and cap against the cold.
Now, speaking briefly amid the jostling crowd, she waited quietly as her supporters celebrated.
Darshana became the first declared winner of Nepal’s snap parliamentary election, held nearly two years ahead of schedule after last year’s deadly protests that shook the country. The Gen Z demonstrations, led largely by young Nepalis frustrated with corruption, unemployment and political stagnation, left at least 77 people dead and more than 2,000 injured.
Protesters torched politicians’ homes as well as government buildings, hotels and schools, forcing prime minister KP Sharma Oli to resign and parliament to dissolve. The interim government called for elections for parliament within six months.
This election felt less like a traditional vote and more like a referendum on Nepal’s political elite. During the campaign, it seemed many voters had already made up their minds
For three decades, our politics here have been dominated by a handful of established parties that have been accused of corruption, nepotism and bad governance. The old parties were defensive and subdued.
The campaigns were also a study in contrast: the newer parties leaned on social media reels and graphics, while older parties relied on mass rallies and door-to-door canvassing.
The three-year-old RSP, founded by a television talk-show host named Rabi Lamichhane, however, channeled the anger and aspirations of the Gen Z protests.
Lamichhane himself remains a controversial figure. He is embroiled in several legal cases, including accusations that he siphoned off millions of rupees from a savings fund, which he denies.
The campaign gathered momentum only after the entry of a charismatic newcomer with a vast social media following: Balendra Shah, a 35-year-old rapper-turned-politician who rose to prominence after winning the Kathmandu mayoral race in 2022 and quickly built a combative reputation.
Shah’s candidacy was the most closely watched contest of the election. He challenged the 74-year-old former prime minister in his stronghold in southeastern Nepal. The result was stunning: Shah defeated Oli by nearly 50,000 votes.
The victory symbolised more than an upstart politician defeating a political veteran. For many voters, it represented a generational shift.
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On March 5, I spent the day at polling stations across Kathmandu. Young voters queued patiently under a grey sky. Many were voting for the first time.
“Many young people like me are forced to go overseas for work or study,” Achyut Khanal, a young voter I met outside the polling station, told me. “I could be one of them. But I don’t want to leave Nepal. I voted for the party because I hope they will create opportunities here.”
Near Kathmandu’s historic Durbar Square, families arrived in groups, creating an atmosphere that felt almost festive. A bearded middle-aged man told his friends that he had supported the Nepali Congress, the country’s grand old party, for years. “But this time,” he said, “I voted for the bell.”
As vote counts continued through the following days, the so-called “blue wave,” the RSP’s party colour, swept across much of the country.
Yet winning the election may prove the easy part.
Last year’s protests were triggered by a brief government ban on social media. But it quickly grew into a broader revolt against corruption, unemployment and a political elite widely seen as enriching itself while ordinary Nepalis struggled.
Throughout the campaign, Shah portrayed himself as a man of action. At rallies and speeches across the country, he promised to end corruption, accelerate stalled infrastructure projects and deliver quicker government services.
Many voters appear to have given his party a chance. The new lawmakers will soon move into Singha Durbar, Nepal’s sprawling government complex, which is still undergoing repairs after damage during the protests.
On a recent afternoon at Kathmandu’s international airport – usually crowded with migrant workers headed for the Gulf countries – the departure terminal was quiet. War in the Middle East has disrupted flights and killed at least one Nepali migrant in the United Arab Emirates. Some migrants who had returned home to vote now found themselves stranded as flights were cancelled.
Their remittances underpin Nepal’s economy. Tourism, another key source of foreign income, may also suffer as global instability and inflation affect travellers.
As the election delivers a new government in Kathmandu, Nepal’s new MPs face an enormous challenge.
Replacing the old guard, whom many young Nepalis blame for decades of stagnation, was the easy part. Delivering the promised change may prove far harder. And the Gen Zs who brought them to power are watching closely.
