Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke to Nepal’s Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) leaders Rabi Lamichhan and rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah to congratulate them on their election victory and reaffirm India’s commitment to work together for the common prosperity, development and welfare of both nations.
During the phone calls, Prime Minister Modi said he was confident that through joint efforts, India-Nepal ties would reach new heights in the coming years.
Heading to X, he said, “Had cordial telephone conversations with Mr. Rabi Lamichhan, President of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and Mr. Balendra Shah, Senior Leader of RSP. He expressed my best wishes for their incoming new government and India’s commitment to work with them for mutual prosperity, progress and well-being of our two countries.”
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The 35-year-old RSP prime ministerial candidate, popularly known as ‘Balen’, defeated four-time former prime minister KP Sharma Oli, chairman of Nepal’s parent party CPN-UML, by a huge margin of nearly 50,000 votes in Jhapa-5 constituency.
India remains Nepal’s largest trading partner, accounting for 63 percent of its imports worth about $8.6 billion, while China follows with 13 percent, or about $1.8 billion, according to World Bank data.
Nepal Election 2026
The House of Representatives of Nepal has a total of 275 seats, of which 165 members are elected by the first-past-the-post (direct vote) system, while the remaining 110 are elected by proportional representation.
Read also | Nepal election results: RSP’s Balendra Shah takes the lead, will he be the next prime minister?
In the ongoing general elections, the results for 161 of the 165 directly elected seats have already been announced and the results for the remaining four seats are expected soon.
Although full results have yet to be announced, Balendra Shah’s Rastriya Swatantra party has so far secured 125 out of 165 direct vote seats and 58 out of 110 proportional representation seats, according to the BBC. In comparison, the KP Sharma Oli-led party has so far won eight seats by direct vote and 16 by proportional representation, with a party spokesperson calling the results “unexpected”.
Read also | Nepal votes today: Voting time, key candidates and results
Meanwhile, Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, a spokesman for the Election Commission of Nepal, said the counting of votes under the First Passport System (FPTP) was expected to be completed on Monday evening, while the counting of votes for proportional representation was expected to end on Tuesday evening, according to PTI.
Explaining the delay in the process, Bhattarai said that bad weather in the mountainous areas the day after the vote prevented helicopters from landing to transport the ballots, which slowed the counting.
However, he noted that the vote counting process was faster compared to previous elections. In some cases, there were also delays due to disputes between representatives of different political parties.
