Twelve candidates aged 30 or under have won direct seats in Nepal’s House of Representatives in the recent parliamentary elections, marking a notable generational shift after months of Gen Z protests. Eleven of these young victors are from the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which is poised for a landslide outcome, and one represents the newly formed Shram Sanskriti Party. All won under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, where the candidate with the most votes in a constituency takes the seat.
The RSP’s Prashanta Uprety, 25, emerged as the youngest member of the new House. His victory underscores the party’s ability to attract and promote very young candidates onto the national stage.
Two women who previously held party-nominated seats have been re-elected through direct public votes, reinforcing their grassroots support. Nisha Dangi, 29, and Shovita Gautam, 29, both secured constituency mandates after serving in party-allocated positions.
The election also produced several “giant-killers.” Twenty-eight-year-old Sulabh Kharel defeated veteran CPN-UML leader and former minister Bishnu Paudel by a wide margin. Another 28-year-old, former minister Bablu Gupta, resigned from the interim government to contest these polls and won his seat.
Other young winners include Ranju Neupane, Shivashankar Yadav and Ramjee Yadav, each aged 30. Neupane’s win is especially symbolic: she campaigned while recently becoming a mother and first came to national attention in 2017 as a college student running for Kathmandu mayor with Bibeksheel Nepali, an activist group that helped mobilize youth political engagement.
Analysts expect the youth presence to grow further once the final proportional representation results are declared, which will allocate additional seats based on party vote shares rather than single-constituency wins. Several more young leaders from the RSP are anticipated to enter the legislature through that process.
The surge of young MPs reflects a wider shift in Nepalese politics toward younger leadership and could influence parliamentary priorities and party dynamics in the coming term, particularly as the RSP consolidates its electoral gains.
Original Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c93j7975n9et
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Publish Date: 2026-03-09 16:21:00
