Ex-rapper Shah sworn in as Nepal prime minister after sweeping election win

Rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah was sworn in as prime minister of Nepal on Friday, tasked with restoring political stability and creating jobs in the poor Himalayan nation.

KATHMANDU, Nepal — Rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah was sworn in as prime minister of Nepal on Friday, tasked with restoring political stability and creating jobs in the poor Himalayan nation long troubled by fragile governments and weak growth prospects.

Shah became prime minister after his three-year-old Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) won 182 seats in the 275-member parliament in the March 5 election, the first vote after the anti-corruption Gen Z protests in which 76 people were killed in September last year.

A former mayor of the capital, Kathmandu, Shah, 35, is Nepal’s youngest prime minister in decades and the first Madhesi — people of the southern plains bordering India — to lead the Himalayan nation that is wedged between Asian giants India and China.

Shah, who was wearing skin-tight trousers, a matching jacket, his signature black Nepali cloth cap and sunglasses, was sworn in at the President House in the presence of diplomats and senior government officials.

Shah’s party won Nepal’s first election since anti-corruption Gen Z protests ousted the prime minister last year.Rojan Shrestha / NurPhoto via Getty Images“The first test of the new government lies in transparent and prompt delivery of services to people, who expect early signs of good governance from Sunday itself,” political analyst Puranjan Acharya said. Sunday is a working day in Nepal.