Nepal’s political spotlight has shifted to Kathmandu’s young mayor, Balendra Shah, after Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned in the wake of the deadly student-led “GenZ protests.” Known widely as Balen, the 35-year-old rapper-turned-politician has emerged as a grassroots favorite, with online campaigns portraying him as the Himalayan nation’s next potential leader. Shah has served as Kathmandu’s 15th mayor since May 2022, creating history as the first independent candidate—without party backing—to win the post. An engineer by training, Shah earned his civil engineering degree in Nepal before moving to India for a master’s in structural engineering at Visvesvaraya Technological University in Karnataka. Long before politics, he made a name in Nepal’s underground hip-hop circuit, where his music railed against corruption, injustice, and inequality—themes that continue to define his political stance today.