things-to-know-about-balen-shah-kathmandu-mayor

Things to know about Balen Shah, Kathmandu Mayor

Introduction

Balendra Shah (Balen), a rapper, and a structural engineer, is quite popular among the Nepali youth nowadays. Balen came into the limelight after his powerful lyrical rap battle in Raw Barz, the first-ever rap battle league in Nepal. Shortly after his first rap battle, he became popular among many and also released a few rap songs of his own. He is also the winner of the second season of the Nepali RapBattle League (Raw Barz). Balendra is known for his songs and also for the social work he’s been doing it for a long time now.

He is an independent candidate who has sealed the victory in the recently-held local election in Kathmandu Metropolitan City. Balen became the mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City with 61,767 votes. He defeated the CPN (UML)’s candidates Keshav Sthapit and also Srijana Singh of the Nepali Congress with a huge margin in the election. He is currently serving as the 15th mayor of Kathmandu.

Birth and Educational Background

Balen was born on 27th April 1990 in Naradevi, Kathmandu. He is the youngest son of Dr. Ram Narayan Shah and Dhruvadevi Shah. Balen Shah, who has been interested in music since his childhood, is known as a structural engineer, a rapper, an actor, a music composer, a video director, a songwriter, a poet, a social activist, and many more.

He has completed his Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering from White House Institute of Technology and M.tech in Structural Engineering from the Karnataka Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology.

Professional journey

Balen officially started his artistic life after winning the Second Season of Nepali Rap Battle League (Raw Barz). He became more active in writing lyrics and recording his rap songs/videos after his win in the battle. Before being a mayor he worked as a Structural Engineer and Project Manager at platinum Develops.

After winning the second season of Raw Barz, many youth and other people began to recognize him and start to love and support him. Many youths got so inspired by him that the youth started to follow his steps. His professional journey is not so arduous because of his excellent family background.

And as of today, Balendra stands as a motivation to all the frustrated youths in Nepal seeking change and revolution. It’s not been so long since he’s become the Mayor of KMC, however, we can already feel the positive change. For instance, the availability of public restrooms in different areas, initiation of waste management, live telecast of KMC meetings, and more.

Interest in Politics

Despite having no political background, Balen’s interest in politics swiftly shifted when India imposed a blockade on Nepal after the proclamation of a new constitution on September 20, 2015, in Nepal. He is a part of many social activities before entering politics. He became active in rescue and relief work after the devastating 2015 earthquake. While working for post-earthquake reconstruction, Balen got many opportunities to work with many international activists and engineers in his field. Balen compares the mayor of Kathmandu to the CEO of a company. He has said that there is no comparison with the mayoral post and the politics.

By his talks and interviews on air, it can be believed that his interest is solely in providing the best for KMC and its citizens rather than in post, position, and power by his talks and interviews on air.

Balen Shah Social Profile

Balen Shah is active on his social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Here he shares his visions, photos, videos, and some of his life moments in it. He’s also provided his personal phone number on his Facebook account for those who seek help and are in need of anything.

Youtube: Balen

Followers: 328K subscribers

Facebook: Balen Shah (बालेन)

Followers: 141K

Instagram: balenshah

Followers: 123K

As mentioned above, Balendra has come up as an independent candidate and our hopes are high. He’s a man with a vision for KMC and with the support from citizens, revolution is inevitable. With Balen as our Mayor, change is possible, slowly and gradually!