The mood in Kathmandu has shifted decisively in favour of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). On everyone’s lips is the word “ghanti,” the election symbol of RSP and its prime ministerial face, Balendra Shah. In every constituency in Kathmandu, RSP is leading, and several candidates have already won. RSP is aiming for a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives (HoR), a feat achieved only once before, when B.P. Koirala secured such a majority in Nepal’s first democratic elections in 1959.
The elections were expected to be a three-way contest among the rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, the old hand K.P. Oli, and a Tory-like conservative, Gagan Thapa, vying for office. All these leaders represent different facets of Nepal’s politics. Shah stood for a new Nepal that delivers good services to people and is anti-corruption. Oli came to be associated with greed for power and a form of Nepali nationalism that whips up anti-India sentiments to gain support, whereas Thapa, an insider to Nepal’s politics, emerged as an institutionalist who preferred to work within the confines of the constitution.