Prime minister of Nepal, popularly known as Balen. A former rapper, he became mayor of Kathmandu in 2022 at age 32. As mayor he tackled the city's sanitation woes and evicted illegal businesses from central areas, though his eviction of hawkers was sometimes violent and offered no rehabilitation.
In January 2026 he joined the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), a four-year-old party founded by a former television host on an anti-corruption platform. Youth leaders followed. In national elections on March 5th 2026 the RSP won 183 of 275 seats in the lower house. Balen, aged 35, stormed to victory in the Jhapa-5 constituency, defeating the 74-year-old four-time former prime minister K.P. Sharma Oli by a ratio of seven to two.
Balen promises to wipe out corruption and focus on governance. He envisions Nepal not as a buffer state between India and China but as a "bridge" between the two. He has pledged to create 1.2m jobs and double GDP per person to $3,000 in five years. He does not speak to the press, preferring social media to communicate with the public.
You don't have to be nice to people on the way up if you're not planning on coming back down.