The assault on corruption and misgovernance has begun in Nepal. On March 28, in the first high-voltage act of PM Balen Shah, the government ordered the first-ever arrest of a former PM, KP Oli. I have been witnessing the entire election process in Nepal. To recap, elections were held on March 5; by 6/7 March it was eminently clear that the four-year-old Rashtriya Swatantra Party had swept the poll in both First Past the Post (FPTP) and Proportional Representation (PR) of Nepal’s mixed electoral system.

But it was only on March 25, that the seniormost lawmaker of the dissolved House, Nepali Congress’s Arjun Narsingh KC (NC coup-maker Gagan Thapa’s father-in-law), was sworn in by President Ram Chandra Poudel as lawmaker. The next day, 274 of 275 lawmakers, including RSP chairman Rabi Lamichhane, who is out on bail on charges of corruption, were sworn in by Narsingh KC. From Shah’s body language and protocol (Lamichhane was the last to arrive at the lawmaker oath-taking), it appeared that he recognised Lamichhane as the senior party colleague. Lamichhane proposed Shah as the leader of the parliamentary party. Despite speculation about a personality clash, leadership friction, and buzz about power-sharing, the December 28, 2025 Seven Point Agreement between Lamichhane and Shah contains no ambiguity about separation of power. Once Lamichhane is cleared of legal baggage, how he will be accommodated in the cabinet, if at all, remains a question mark.

Four-times PM Prachanda of the Nepal Communist Party also took oath, as three former PMs were missing, not given a ticket, while two others........

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