Nepal’s youngest prime minister took the oath of office Friday after his party won a landslide victory in elections earlier this month, and following a youth-led uprising that toppled the government in September.
Balendra Shah was appointed prime minister by President Ram Chandra Paudel Friday after his Rastriya Swatantra Party won nearly two-thirds of the seats in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, in the March 5 polls.
Shah, the 35-year-old political outsider widely known as Balen, will lead a government tasked with navigating deep public frustration with Nepal’s established parties, who were widely blamed by voters for corruption and chronic political instability.
The elaborate swearing-in ceremony was to include Hindu rituals, such as the “shankhnaad” or blowing of conches, and religious chanting by Hindu priests and Buddhist lamas.
The timing of Shah's oath taking — at 12:34 p.m. on the day when the Himalayan nation is celebrating Ram Navami — was seen as an auspicious time by Hindu priests based on astrological calculations. It also fits the “1-2-3-4” numerological pattern. Shah is later scheduled to enter his new office at 14:15 p.m. which also fits a “14-15” pattern. Hindu priests consider such numerical patterns as auspicious as well.
Religion and astrology play a big role in Nepal, which is more than 80% Hindu and where people begin new work, get married and hold religious rituals according to auspicious times.
{{/usCountry}}Religion and astrology play a big role in Nepal, which is more than 80% Hindu and where people begin new work, get married and hold religious rituals according to auspicious times.
{{/usCountry}}Shah was born in the capital Kathmandu but his family comes from the Hindu-dominated Terai region of Nepal, near the border with India.
A structural engineer who rose to fame as a rap artist before becoming Kathmandu’s mayor, he leads the Rastriya Swatantra Party, which won about two-thirds of the 275 seats in the bicameral Parliament’s powerful lower House of Representatives.
Shah emerged as a prominent voice during the bloody youth-led uprising in September that toppled the government in the nation of 30 million people, a wave of unrest that left dozens dead.
Although he didn’t directly participate in the protests, Shah publicly expressed support for the largely Generation Z demonstrators who led the movement.