He raps, he rants, he promises change. Meet Nepal's presumptive new leader

In his 35 years, Balendra Shah has been a rapper, a mayor, an engineer and an unswerving fan of rectangular sunglasses. He is now on the brink of becoming Nepal’s youngest ever prime minister after his party scored a landslide victory in elections last week.

- HANNAH BEECH, BINOD GHIMIRE & SAJAL PRADHAN

The vote was the first since a Gen Z-led uprising last year overthrew a government that many Nepalis viewed as corrupt and out of touch. The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), a young political force that positioned itself as the inheritor of the Gen Z revolution, received the largest mandate in Nepal’s modern electoral history, winning a significant majority of 275 parliamentary seats, according to official results released on Tuesday.

Why did people vote for him?

Technically, Nepal’s electorate picked the RSP. But many Nepalis did not cast their ballots last Thursday for a party; they voted for Balen, as Shah is popularly known.

A socially conscious rapper, Shah has prided himself in not being bound to Nepal’s political establishment. Four years ago, he successfully ran as an independent for mayor of Kathmandu, the nation’s capital. He cultivated an image of a politician who got things done— tackling waste management, improving education and delivering health care — precisely because he wasn’t beholden to the ossified hierarchy of party politics.

As mayor, Shah lent early support to the Gen Z protesters, who had gathered peacefully in Kathmandu in September to condemn corruption and nepotism, as well as a sweeping social media ban.