Nepal’s Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), led by rapper-turned-politician Balendra “Balen” Shah, has won in the parliamentary election.

The RSP is a political party founded in 2022 by television presenter and politician Rabi Lamichhane, who has campaigned for good governance.

Official results released Thursday by the Election Commission of Nepal showed that RSP secured 182 seats in the 275-member House of Representatives following the March 5 election.

The vote elected members of the lower house: 165 seats were decided directly, and 110 through proportional representation.

“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.

He said a letter has been sent to the concerned political parties, instructing them to select the candidates’ names and submit them to the commission within three days.

Results showed that RSP won 125 directly contested seats and 57 through proportional representation, falling two seats short of a two-thirds majority.

Mr Shah defeated former Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli in the federal parliamentary race after securing 68,348 votes, while Mr Oli had 18,734.

Once known for his rap career, Mr Shah rose rapidly in politics, particularly among young voters frustrated with traditional parties.

In the parliamentary results, the Nepali Congress, which held the largest share of seats in the previous parliament, won 38 seats, while the Marxists led by Mr Oli secured 25 seats. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) won seven seats.

Mr Shah, who won the 2022 Kathmandu mayoral election, publicly supported the youth protests in September 2025 after the government banned several social media platforms. The ban was later lifted before Mr Oli resigned.

At least 77 people were killed during the protests, and Mr Shah publicly backed the youths and criticised the government, and at one point called Mr Oli a “terrorist” who had betrayed the country.

In his party’s manifesto released in February, Mr Shah promised to create 1.2 million jobs, curb the growing number of citizens leaving the country for work abroad, expand healthcare protection, and boost economic growth over the next five years.