PM Shehbaz Sharif congratulates Rabi Lamichhane, Balendra Shah on Nepal election victory

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday extended his heartfelt felicitation to Rabi Lamichhane and Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party on their remarkable victory in Nepal’s 2026 elections.

He said this strong mandate reflected the trust of the Nepali people in the new and dynamic leadership.

"Pakistan looks forward to working closely with the newly elected Government of Nepal to further strengthen our historic friendship and cooperation," the prime minister said in a post on his X handle.

Nepal’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) of 35-year-old rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah has secured a majority in the direct parliamentary elections and is heading for a landslide, according to official results and trends.

Shah’s RSP has already won at least 117 of 153 direct seats and is leading in eight other constituencies in results published by Nepal’s Election Commission. Shah, widely known simply as “Balen”, himself on Saturday defeated the veteran four-time Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli – whose Marxist-led government was ousted in the protests last year – in his own seat in a southeastern district, securing almost four times as many votes as Oli.

Shah’s victory over the 74-year-old Oli, and his rise from the capital Kathmandu’s mayor to potential prime minister, marks one of the most dramatic results in recent Nepali politics.

The Nepali Congress, the largest party in the past coalition government, won 17 seats, though its new leader, Gagan Thapa, was defeated by an RSP candidate.

Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) was trailing with seven wins. Former Maoist commander Pushpa Kamal Dahal, a three-time prime minister, won his seat.