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Nepal’s election winners aims to ‘transform political discourse’

Nepal’s election winners aims to ‘transform political discourse’

Nepal’s election winners aims to ‘transform political discourse’

Nepal’s election winners aims to ‘transform political discourse’

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  • A new generation of young people challenged the dominance of Nepal’s old guard.
  • One of them was Biraj Bhakta Shrestha, a representative for the recently founded National Independence Party (NIP).
  • She will join Shrestha in the House of Representatives. “We can change political discourse and take it to new directions,” she said.
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A new generation of young people challenged the dominance of Nepal’s old guard during the elections on November 20.

In the early 2000s, Biraj Bhakta Shrestha was still around his early teens and used to spend his time busking in the capital city of Nepal’s Freak Street.

He would choose a spot on the street in Basantapur, Kathmandu, and play some of his original songs as well as well-known versions of artists like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.

The Maoist uprising in the Himalayan nation at the time ended in 2006. A unpopular monarchy was overthrown two years later, transforming Nepal into a federal democratic republic.

“I think the prime minister even at that time [the early 2000s] was Sher Bahadur Deuba,” Shrestha told Media. Two decades later, Deuba at 76 is still the incumbent prime minister – his fifth term.

Numerous younger leaders, including Shrestha, ran in the last parliamentary elections as a result of this anger at the parties led by Nepal’s ageing political elite.

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During the elections on November 20, a wave of young people challenged the political establishment’s dominance in Nepal. A few of them were successful, but many more received a sizable number of votes. Some of them even faced out against well-known leaders in their long-standing constituency.

One among the winners was Shrestha, a representative for the recently founded National Independence Party (NIP), who won a seat in the House of Representatives for the Kathmandu-8 district.

“I was really happy with what I was doing. I loved art, I played music, I was a young tourism entrepreneur and an avid traveller,” Shrestha said.

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“The only thing I was always yearning for was self-respect. While I was trying to stand on my own feet, I felt the country hardly respected what I was doing. It is necessary for the state to respect and extend dignity to all professions and feel responsible about them.”

The articulate Sobita Gautam, a 27-year-old lawyer and journalist who won her election from Kathmandu-2, a closely monitored district where conventional parties maintained a firm hold, will join Shrestha in the House of Representatives.

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“As a young representative, I plan to bring fresh discourses to the parliament. In the past, we have always had old political approaches and the same faces, so no one talked about contemporary issues,” Gautam told Media.

“At the same time, we are educated and experienced in our fields, which gives us diversity. We can change political discourse and take it to new directions.”

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