KATHMANDU: Rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah 'Balen,' took oath as Nepal's democratically elected prime minister on Friday, around six months after the K P Sharma Oli-led government was ousted in a Gen-Z protest that shook the nation.
The 35-year-old Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) leader was sworn in at a ceremony at the President's Office in Sheetal Niwas at the auspicious time of 12.34 pm. Balen, also an engineer, is the youngest person to assume the office in the Himalayan nation, and also the first person from the Madhes region to hold the top executive post.
He was appointed as the 47th prime minister by President Ram Chandra Paudel in accordance with Article 76 (1) of the constitution earlier in the day.
He is the first democratically elected prime minister to be sworn in since the coalition government led by former prime minister Oli was ousted in September last year, after the youth-led Gen Z protest against corruption, nepotism, and a social media ban escalated into violence.
A unique blend of Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions featured in Balen's swearing-in ceremony.
It comprised elaborate religious rituals, including Shankhanad (conch blowing) by seven brahmins, recitation of Vedic hymns or Swasti Bachan by 108 Hindu Batuks or young brahmins and Mangal Bachan or recitation of Buddhist scripture by 107 Lamas.
Balen is likely to form a small cabinet with the number of ministers ranging between 15 and 18, sources have said.
In the March 5 general elections, the former Kathmandu mayor defeated four-time prime minister Sharma Oli in the Jhapa-5 constituency, a long-standing stronghold of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), by a huge margin.
The RSP won a landslide victory in the March 5 poll, securing a massive 182 seats out of the total 275 seats in the House of Representatives (HoR), making it eligible to form a majority government.
Of the 275 members of the HoR, 165 are elected through direct voting and 110 through proportionate voting.
Balen and the RSP tsunami almost wiped out the traditional parties with the Nepali Congress winning only 38 seats, followed by the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) with 25, and the Nepali Communist Party getting only 17 seats.
Former chief justice Sushila Karki took charge as the interim prime minister on the recommendation of the Gen Z group after Oli's ouster.
On Friday, the newly elected HoR members, including Balen, took the oath of office at the federal parliament building, beginning the process of government formation three weeks after the voting concluded.