Rapper Balendra Shah becomes new Mayor of Kathmandu

Kathmandu : Rapper with an educational degree in structural engineering, Balendra Shah, an independent candidate in lately held local level elections, has been elected as the mayor of the capital city Kathmandu.

According to the Election Commission, Balendra Shah who is known as “Balen” amongst the youths of Kathmandu secured 61,767 votes to get elected to the post of Mayor.

Shah’s erstwhile rival Sirjana Singh of Nepali Congress fell back with 38,341 votes while the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML) candidate Keshav Sthapit, also the former Mayor of the capital received 38,117 votes.

Standing tough against the established political parties, Shah had announced his candidature for the metropolitan constituency two and a half years ago.

The elected mayor had completed higher secondary education (Plus Two) from VS Niketan in Kathmandu and graduated from Himalayan White House College with a degree in Engineering. Shah has a bachelor’s degree in structural engineering from a university in India and had worked in various districts of Nepal for development work.

Alongside, Balen, the CPN-UML’s Sunita Dangol has won the post of deputy mayor. As per the vote count results published late on Thursday night, Dangol’s rival Rameshwar Shrestha fell back with 23,806 votes.

In the May 13 election, a total of 35,034 people’s representatives have been elected in the various local bodies as the vote-counting are still underway.

According to the Election Commission, the results of 187 people’s representatives are yet to come. The Commission had held elections simultaneously at all 753 local levels of the country.

Elections were held for a total of 35,221 people’s representatives including mayors, deputy mayors, chiefs, deputy chiefs, ward chairpersons, women members, Dalit women members and open members.

A total of 145,011 candidates had filed nominations in the election. In the election where the final results have been made public so far, most of the Nepali Congress candidates have emerged victorious. After that, the candidates of CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Center) and Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP), Nepal emerged victorious.

According to the Commission, 13,711 candidates from the NC, 11,847 from the UML, 5,044 from Maoist Center, 1,539 from the JSP, and 2,790 from other parties and independents have been elected.