Situating Nepal’s current political moment in the long history of feudalism to republican democracy 

Nepal’s history since 1950 has seen feudal rule, absolute  monarchy, civil war, and a republic. The RSP’s 2026 landslide win after a  massive but violent Gen Z movement faces the same test.

The Rastriya Swatantra Party’s stunning sweep in the March  2026 elections, securing an absolute majority in the House of  Representatives and a majority of votes in the proportional  representation system as well, marks a new rupture in Nepali politics.  Rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, who resigned as Kathmandu’s  mayor to lead the RSP’s campaign since January 2026, defeated former  Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified  Marxist Leninist in the latter’s own constituency of Jhapa-5, a result  symbolising the defeat and rejection of the political old guard in the  country. 

The RSP, founded only in 2022 by television personality Rabi Lamichhane, had ridden a wave of anti-establishment sentiment,  fuelled by the Gen Z uprising of September 2025, to deliver Nepal’s first  parliamentary majority in 27 years. The three parties that had dominated  Nepali politics since the 1990s — the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, and CPN  (Maoist Centre) — were reduced to 38, 25, and 17 seats respectively, their  worst-ever collective performance. At just 35, Shah is poised to become  Nepal’s youngest Prime Minister, set to govern a country that is still  counted among the world’s least developed. 

This article is a part of The Hindu’s e-book: Nepal’s new political moment

The scale of the RSP’s victory, in a way, matched the depth of the anger  that produced it. Six months before the election, Nepal had witnessed its  most violent popular upheaval since the civil war of the 1990s/2000s – an  uprising that lasted barely a couple of days but destroyed government  buildings, toppled the Oli government, and left dozens dead. 

The Run-Up: The Gen Z protests 

What began on September 8, 2025 as a youth-led protest against the Oli  government’s ban on 26 social media platforms rapidly metamorphosed  into a nationwide uprising. The government’s argument that the platforms  failed to comply with registration requirements following a Supreme  Court ruling on content monitoring was not accepted by young internet connected Nepalis who saw it as an attempt to suppress dissent against a  political class of the elite.