India, March 4 -- When Nepal goes to the general election on March 5, none of the major party grandees who have been taking turns as prime minister for a good part of the last two decades will be in the reckoning for Singh Durbar.

If the size of the campaign and social media coverage are anything to go by, the honour this time should go to the rapper-turned-ex-mayor-turned Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) leader Balendra Shah, half their age at 35.

Balen (as he is popularly called) has been projected as prime minister by RSP, the fourth-largest party in the now-dissolved House and the newest of them all, registered only six months before the last general election in 2022. Kathmandu's popular ex-mayor, not known to deliver long speeches as...