KATHMANDU, Nepal—As a rapper, Balendra Shah tapped into the political disenchantment of Nepal’s young people with lyrics that called the country’s politicians “fools” and “looting thieves.”
Those frustrations erupted in September, when Nepal’s young people forced out their prime minister, joining a wave of Gen Z uprisings around the world protesting perceived corruption and a lack of jobs.
Now many are hoping that Balen, as he is popularly known, will be Nepal’s next leader.
“It’s been too long that I’ve been only complaining,” said Balen in an interview just before he quit his job as Kathmandu mayor in January and announced he would run for prime minister in elections set for Thursday. “So I thought I should try to do it myself.”
Often dressed in black from head to toe, including a black traditional Nepali cap and shades, Balen, 36, has come to represent the hopes of many young middle-class Nepalis.
The son of a doctor of traditional medicine and a homemaker, Balen studied to be a civil engineer, and later helped rebuild homes lost in Nepal’s deadly 2015 earthquake. Around that time, he gained a following as a rapper for his politically charged songs, a side gig that grew out of his love of poetry.
“Let me speak, Government—it is not a crime,” says a verse of one of his most popular releases, “Balidan,” the Nepali word for sacrifice. “I fear not to speak the truth. Will the law really come for me, just for raising my voice?”
In 2022, he ran for office for the first time, becoming mayor of the country’s capital in a surprise victory. He ran as an independent candidate and his young fans lobbied their parents to put aside their loyalties to establishment parties and support him.
Balen’s success has been a hopeful counterpoint in a country that many Nepalis see as rife with corruption and cronyism, allowing only the well-connected to flourish, while ordinary people are shut out. A social-media campaign last year aimed at “nepo babies” contrasted the lifestyles of the families of the political elite with the hardships of ordinary Nepalis.
Nestled between India and China, two of the world’s biggest economies, Nepal has lagged behind economically. With a per capita gross domestic product of around $1,500, the country is dependent on remittances and tourism, particularly expeditions to Mount Everest and other Himalayan peaks, as key sources of earnings. It has little manufacturing, leaving many people still reliant on farming even as the population has become more educated.
“People want jobs, employment, development,” said Bhim Upadhyaya, a former official who has occasionally advised Balen. “And they are impatient.”
Youth unemployment in Nepal, a country of 30 million, stands at nearly 21%, according to the World Bank, far higher than in most of its South Asian neighbors. About one million Nepalis left the country in 2025 to work or study abroad, according to Nepal’s Department of Immigration.
“Everybody in our country was fed up of the older parties,” said Balen. “For 25 to 30 years, they were ruling all over the country and they could not deliver.”
In contrast, many say Balen has helped clean up Nepal’s haphazardly developed capital—where many migrants to the capital have settled and built homes and businesses without authorization—despite roadblocks put in his way by national politicians.
Soon after becoming mayor, he ordered garbage collectors to stop collecting from government offices, including that of the prime minister, in the middle of a fight with the national government over where waste should be disposed of.
Last year, when the government wouldn’t allow him to fire an administrator that he alleged was corrupt, he locked the official out of his office in city hall—even though it delayed salary payments to city employees, including himself, for months.
Rights groups have been critical of some of Balen’s measures, saying they hurt the poor, such as clearing away street vendors from sidewalks and attempting to evict unauthorized settlements from public lands.
When Nepalis turned out to protest last year, after the government banned social media in what many saw as an attempt to curb dissent, they turned to Balen for inspiration.
As mayor, he did not take to the streets himself.
He joked that he exceeded the age limit for a Gen Z protest. But he made clear his support for the young people who protested. In a Facebook post, he asked, “Gen Z, tell me, what kind of country do you want to see?”
Security forces responded with deadly force on Sept. 8, the first day of protests, killing at least 19 protesters. On Sept. 9, outrage over the deaths prompted demonstrators to set fire to government buildings, including the government headquarters, known as Singha Durbar, and to attack current and former politicians. In the afternoon, Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli resigned.
The violence subsided after Balen and key organizers called for calm.
“Gen Z, your murderer has resigned,” wrote Balen in a Facebook post. “Restrain yourselves!! The loss of public lives and property is our own loss.”
Oli and other politicians have blamed Balen for contributing to the conflagration with inflammatory messages, in particular a late-night post on Sept. 8 in which he called Oli a “terrorist.” Many also pointed to an old social-media post in which Balen had once threatened to set the Singha Durbar on fire.
Supporters say Balen was echoing public anger over the protester deaths, not instigating it.
“This is why Balen resonates with the youth,” said Surajan Budhathoki, 31, an app designer in Kathmandu who has struggled with red tape and high taxes. “An experienced politician knows how to talk in a diplomatic way. Balen on the other hand…no patience—just a raw voice.”
Balen says he would be more measured as prime minister, and believes his mayoral experience has prepared him to lead the country.
During the election campaign, Balen has promised to provide better healthcare and education for the poor, while improving the business climate for entrepreneurs.
The Nepal election follows close on the heels of a vote in Bangladesh, which saw a student-led uprising oust Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024.
After Bangladesh and Nepal, there has been a groundswell of Gen Z protests globally, felling governments in Madagascar and Bulgaria and unnerving rulers from Morocco to Iran.
Last month, Bangladesh voted for a politician from the old establishment, rather than a coalition that included a party founded by the student protesters, hoping for an end to political unrest that a caretaker government that included student leaders was unable to quell.
Nepal’s election will take place while the wounds of the September protest, which left nearly 80 people dead, are still fresh. Many political analysts believe that will favor Balen.
Rashila Khatiwada Khatri, whose 22-year-old brother was killed while protesting, said she has long admired Balen. She was hurt that he didn’t appear in public to mourn with families like hers—but she still wants to see Balen win because her brother supported him. She recalled that he often told her, “This person has vision.”
“The country is seeking change right now,” said Khatri, 28, who supports her family in Nepal by working as a nurse in Australia. “I see that change happening through Balen.”
To run in this election, Balen, who didn’t have a party of his own, joined forces with another antiestablishment politician who founded a new party in 2022. Named the Rastriya Swatantra Party, it has promised to create more than a million jobs over the next five to seven years and to double per capita GDP over the same period.
Balen is running against Oli, the former prime minister, in the district that the 74-year-old political veteran handily won for years.
“Balen could have contested from any other constituency and won easily,” said Kumar Byanjankar, a friend and aide. The rapper wants “to send a message of the arrival of good and honest politics in the country.”
Write to Krishna Pokharel at krishna.pokharel@wsj.com and Tripti Lahiri at tripti.lahiri@wsj.com