Nepal’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), the party of rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, won a majority in parliament with 182 seats, Election Commission results showed Thursday (March 12, 2026).

The March 5 vote elected a new 275-member House of Representatives, the lower house of Parliament, with 165 seats chosen directly and 110 through a proportional representation vote.

“The counting of votes for the election of members of the House of Representatives… has been completed,” Election Commission spokesman Narayan Prasad Bhattarai said in a statement.

In direct elections, RSP won 125 of the 165, and secured another 57 in PR votes, leaving them only two seats short of securing a powerful two-thirds majority.

The Nepali Congress, which was the biggest party in the last parliament, secured 38 seats, with the Marxists of now-defeated K.P. Sharma Oli trailing with 25 seats. The Maoists have seven seats.

“A letter has been sent to the concerned political parties today to select the names of the candidates and submit them to the Commission within three days,” Mr. Bhattarai said.

The vote was the first since deadly September 2025 youth anti-corruption protests toppled the government.

The demonstrations, under a loose Gen Z banner, began over a brief social media ban but quickly tapped into broader grievances over corruption and a struggling economy.

Mr. Shah himself defeated veteran four-time Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli — whose Marxist-led government was ousted in the violence last year — in his own seat.

His victory over the 74-year-old Oli and his rise from the capital’s Mayor to expected Prime Minister, caps a bold gamble and mark one of the most dramatic results in recent Nepali politics.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday (March 9, 2026) spoke to leaders of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) of Nepal, Rabi Lamichhane and Balendra Shah, and congratulated them for their election victory and conveyed India’s commitment to work with them for mutual prosperity, progress and well-being of the two countries.

In his telephonic conversations with the two leaders of Nepal, Mr. Modi said he was confident that with the joint endeavours, India-Nepal relations would scale new heights in the coming years.

“Had warm telephone conversations with Mr. Rabi Lamichhane, Chairman of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), and Mr. Balendra Shah, senior leader of the RSP,” he said in a post on X.

The Prime Minister said he congratulated both leaders on their electoral victories and the RSP’s resounding success in the Nepal elections.

“Conveyed my best wishes for their forthcoming new government and India’s commitment to work with them for mutual prosperity, progress and well-being of our two countries,” he said.

The House of Representatives (HoR) in Nepal has a total of 275 seats. While 165 members are elected through the First Past The Post (FPTP) or direct voting system, 110 members are elected through proportional representation.

In the general elections, so far, the results for Nepal’s 161 of the 165 seats have been declared under direct voting. The outcome on the remaining four seats is expected to be declared soon.

Under proportionate voting, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has secured 40,49,604 votes, followed by the NC at 13,60,281, the CPN-UML 11,50,679, the NCP 5,91,940, the Shram Sanskriti Party 2,91,965, the Janata Samajwadi Party 1,16,463 and the Rastriya Parivartan Party 2,76,931.

With more than 40 lakh votes under the proportional representation system, the RSP is expected to secure at least 40 additional seats, taking its tally to around 164 seats in the 275-member House of Representatives, which is well above the 138 needed for a simple majority, political observers said.

Rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah’s newly formed Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was on Saturday (March 7, 2026) heading towards a sweeping victory in Nepal’s first general elections since the violent Gen Z protests, shattering the dominance of established political parties in the politically fragile nation.

According to the latest Election Commission data, the RSP has won 18 seats and is ahead in 99 others.

Nepal election results: RSP’s poll surge upends country’s politics, heads towards landslide victory

The election is being closely watched by India, which hopes for a stable government in the politically fragile Himalayan nation to take forward the developmental partnership between the two sides.

“We look forward to working with the new Government of Nepal to further build on the robust multifaceted ties between our two countries and peoples for mutual benefit,” Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said in Delhi on Thursday (March 5, 2026).

He said India has “consistently supported peace, progress and stability in Nepal and in keeping with our commitment, provided logistical supplies as per request from the Government of Nepal for these elections”.

The Nepali Congress has won four seats and is leading in 11 others, while the CPN-UML has won a seat and is leading in 11 constituencies. The Nepali Communist Party has bagged two seats and is leading in 10 constituencies. The Shram Sanskriti Party is now leading in only three seats, as opposed to six earlier.

Out of a total of 275 members of the Parliament, 165 will be elected through direct voting, while the remaining 110 will be elected through a proportionate method.

In the Nepal elections, about 18.9 million voters were eligible to elect 275 members of the House of Representatives, with around 60 per cent of them turning out to vote on Thursday (March 5 2026).

Around 3,400 candidates are vying for 165 seats under direct voting, and 3,135 candidates for 110 seats through proportionate voting.

The Gen Z youth, through their two-day intensified protests on September 8 and 9 last year, ousted Prime Minister Oli, who was heading a coalition government with the backing of Nepali Congress that enjoyed nearly two-thirds majority support.

After Mr. Oli’s ouster, President Ramchandra Paudel dissolved the House of Representatives on September 12 and appointed Sushila Karki as the caretaker PM.

The major issues raised by Gen Z are anti-corruption, good governance, an end to nepotism, generational change in political leadership, etc.

While vote counting continues in Nepal on Friday (March 6, 2026), the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) stretched its lead to 101 constituencies under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system.

The RSP’s prime ministerial candidate Balendra Shah widened his lead to 11,945 votes, leaving former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli behind at 2,692. Jhapa-5, Mr. Oli’s home turf, has 163,379 registered voters.

Meanwhile, the Nepali Congress and Mr. Oli’s party, the CPN-UML, are trailing in 11 and 12 constituencies, respectively.

The RSP is also making gains under the proportional representation (PR) system, securing 11,562 votes. Of the 19,728 PR votes counted, the RSP’s share stands at 58%.

The Nepali Congress has 3,664 votes (18%), followed by the Rastriya Prajatantra Party with 1,752 votes (8.88%).

RSP’s Ranju Neupane and Biraj Bhakta Shrestha have already been declared winners in Kathmandu-1 and Kathmandu-8, respectively.

Also Read: Balendra Shah | Enigmatic mayor

People of Nepal cast their ballots on March 5 for a new House of Representatives, which was dissolved after the September Gen-Z protests.

Nepal elects 275 members to the House of Representatives — 165 under the FPTP system and 110 under the PR system.

PR seats are allocated based on the nationwide vote shares of parties, using the Sainte-Lague method.