Old video of Balendra Shah goes viral as Nepal chooses him as next PM | WATCH

As Balendra Shah gears up to become the next prime minister of Nepal, an old video of the rapper-turned-politician dancing to hip beats has resurfaced. The viral clip features Shah dancing to “Ampun Ketua,” a high-energy track that has become a “power anthem” on TikTok and Instagram.

Ampun Ketua is often used in social media challenges to show someone who is "winning" or in charge, but doing it with a bit of swagger.

The to-be Nepal Prime Minister, who built his career on the "Nephop" (Nepali hip-hop), dancing to a song that roughly translates to "Forgive me, Leader" or "Mercy, Boss" is exactly the kind of playful, "Gen Z" political branding that propelled him to victory.

For Balen Shah, it's a nod to his supporters who see him as the "New Leader" taking over from the old guard.

The Gen-Z of Nepal widely shared this video with captions like: “How everyone in Nepal woke up this morning,” “Nepal's Gen-Z PM proves you can be a leader, an engineer, and a rapper at the same time,” and more.

RSP registers landslide victory in Nepal elections

Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), a three-year-old ​party, won Nepal's general elections by a landslide, authorities said. This has positioned its candidate, Balendra Shah, to become the next prime minister, with a mandate for the rapper-turned-politician to restore political stability.

The March 5 election was the Himalayan nation's first vote since demonstrations against corruption last September led by Gen Z protesters that killed 77 people and toppled the government.

RSP won 182 seats in the 275-member parliament, the Election Commission said on Thursday, the largest majority of any party in more than six decades. They won 125 directly elected seats and 57 as part of the proportional representation votes.

The Nepali Congress party came second, with 38 seats.

The 35-year-old prime-ministerial candidate of the RSP defeated four-time former prime minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, the chair of Nepal's legacy party, CPN-UML, by a huge margin of nearly 50,000 votes in the Jhapa-5 constituency.

Who is Balendra Shah?

Balendra Shah, who is popularly known among people as Balen, is set to become the new Prime Minister of Nepal. His political journey began as the mayor of Kathmandu.

Born in 1990, Balen Shah comes from a Maithil-origin Madhesi family. He received a bachelor's degree (BE) in civil engineering from Himalayan Whitehouse International College. Thereafter, he went to the Visvesvaraya Technological University in Karnataka to earn his M.Tech. degree in structural engineering.

Shah was interested in music since childhood. He turned this into a career by releasing his first single, Sadak Balak, in 2012 — a song he wrote in the ninth grade.

Before joining politics, Balen Shah was a popular name Nepal's underground hip-hop scene as a rapper and lyricist and was known for his songs raising issues about corruption and inequality in Nepal.

He created history in 2022 by contesting the mayoral elections in Kathmandu as an independent candidate and winning by a massive margin of over 61,000 votes, defeating seasoned politicians from established parties.

(With agency inputs)