Among the three former prime ministers who contested Nepal’s March 5 general election, only Pushpakamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ succeeded in retaining his seat as a powerful electoral wave led by the Rashtriya Swatantrata Party (RSP) swept aside much of the country’s long-established political leadership.
The RSP, a relatively new party formed in 2022, moved close to a two-thirds majority by securing 120 of the 156 seats for which results had been declared by Saturday evening, dramatically reshaping the country’s political balance.
The most stunning setback for a traditional party came when RSP’s prime ministerial candidate Balendra Shah, widely known as Balen, defeated KP Sharma Oli — chair of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) and a four-time prime minister — by a massive margin in the Jhapa-5 constituency, a seat long regarded as Oli’s personal and party stronghold.
In what observers described as a classic David-versus-Goliath contest, the 35-year-old Balen secured 68,348 votes, while the 74-year-old veteran leader trailed far behind with 18,734 votes in the eastern Koshi province constituency where Oli had remained dominant for years.
The election itself was called after Oli resigned on September 9 last year, following two days of intense protests led by youth-driven Gen Z groups demanding action against corruption and opposing the government’s decision to restrict social media.
By choosing to contest from Jhapa-5, Balen turned the race into a direct symbolic battle between the entrenched conservative political establishment and a new generation promising reform and accountability.
Prachanda, now 71, contested from Rukum East, continuing his long-standing pattern of shifting constituencies from one election to another. Over the years, he has contested from Rolpa, Kathmandu, Siraha, Chitwan and Gorkha, often seeking electorally safer regions.
Analysts noted that Rukum East has traditionally been a stronghold of the former Maoist movement, giving Prachanda a strategic advantage. Observers also pointed out that he restructured his political base ahead of the polls by dissolving the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) and forming a new political entity, the Nepali Communist Party (NCP), through the merger of numerous smaller groups.
Prachanda now serves as co-coordinator of the newly formed NCP, a rebranding that appeared to consolidate his support base amid the broader anti-establishment wave.
Another former prime minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal, also a co-coordinator of the NCP, lost the Rautahat-1 constituency to RSP candidate Rajesh Kumar Chaudhari, marking another major setback for established leadership.
Baburam Bhattarai, a former prime minister and leader of the Pragatishil Loktantrik Party, had initially entered the race from Gorkha-2 but later withdrew his candidacy.
The electoral upheaval was not limited to high-profile leaders. The RSP dismantled traditional strongholds of Nepal’s two dominant parties — the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML — breaking through areas that had remained loyal for decades.
Election Commission data showed that at least 11 office-bearers of the CPN-UML suffered decisive defeats at the hands of RSP candidates, while several senior figures from the Nepali Congress also failed to retain their seats.
Following the fall of Oli’s government, Gen Z-led protest movements shaped the political discourse by focusing on anti-corruption reforms, improved governance, dismantling nepotism, and pushing for a generational shift in leadership.
Political observers said legacy parties struggled to address voter demands for transparency and systemic reform, while long-standing leaders were increasingly seen as symbols of stagnant, cyclical power politics.
Analysts noted that widespread frustration with decades of leadership reshuffles and coalition manoeuvring led voters to reject the old guard in favour of a new political force promising structural change.
