Kathmandu, March 27 (NationPress) Balendra Shah, the leader of the parliamentary party for the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), has officially been designated as Nepal's newest Prime Minister.

On Friday, President Ram Chandra Poudel appointed the former mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, known popularly as Balen, to this role in accordance with Article 76(1) of the Constitution, as stated by the President’s Office.

Earlier, the RSP, which achieved a remarkable victory in the latest parliamentary elections with nearly a two-thirds majority, selected Shah as its parliamentary party leader, clearing his path to become the 47th Prime Minister of the nation.

Prime Minister Shah is set to take the oath of office at 12:34 PM on Friday at the President’s Office, a ceremony that will include traditional Hindu rituals. As part of the ceremony, seven conch shell blowers will perform the Shankha Naad, a ritual believed to herald successful beginnings.

Other religious ceremonies will coincide with the oath-taking. A group of 108 Batuks (Vedic priests) will chant Swasti Shanti, while 16 Buddhist monks will recite the Ashtamangala, both considered significant in Hindu and Buddhist cultures.

At just 35 years old, Shah is among the youngest individuals to ever hold the office of Prime Minister in Nepal. The recent elections saw a significant number of lawmakers from younger demographics, indicating a generational shift in the political landscape of the country.

Shah is a well-regarded figure among the youth, and his foray into national politics on December 28 of last year is thought to have influenced the RSP's voter appeal. The almost four-year-old party ran its campaign with Shah as its prime ministerial candidate and achieved a stunning victory in the parliamentary elections held on March 5, securing 182 out of 275 seats in the House of Representatives.

Shah triumphed over former Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli by a considerable margin of 49,614 votes, earning 68,348 votes compared to Oli’s 18,734 in Jhapa-5 in eastern Nepal. This represents the highest number of votes garnered by any candidate in Nepal's parliamentary elections since 1991.

Shah's political journey began in 2022 when he was elected mayor of Kathmandu as an independent candidate.

Born on April 27, 1990, in Kathmandu to a Madhesi family that prioritized education and culture, Shah earned his bachelor's degree in Kathmandu before continuing with a master's degree in Structural Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University in India.

His engineering background has provided him with a solid grasp of infrastructure, urban development, and public works, which has influenced his governance approach during his term as Kathmandu's mayor.