Balen Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party has received his victory certificate after securing a historic win in Jhapa-5, marking a major shift in Nepal’s parliamentary politics.
According to the final results published by the Election Commission Nepal, Shah secured 68,348 votes. His closest rival, KP Sharma Oli—chair of the CPN-UML and a former prime minister—received only 18,734 votes. Shah won the constituency by a massive margin of 49,614 votes in Jhapa-5, long considered a stronghold of the UML where Oli had remained undefeated for years.
With Shah’s historic victory, the Rastriya Swatantra Party has achieved encouraging results across the country. Shah, who gained widespread popularity as the mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, had joined the Rastriya Swatantra Party only shortly before the general elections.
