Balen Shah as a personal brand; Rise of alternative politics
Balendra Shah is on course to win a historic landslide in Kathmandu’s metropolitan city. Dumbfounding all the political pundits and experts, Shah is currently leading with double the votes. While it was expected that as the core city votes would start to be counted, Sthapit would catch up, the lead has now become next to insurmountable. So, why is Balen Shah winning in spite of having no credible experience in politics?
Shah’s expected win is evidence of dynamic change in alternative politics. It is not that he is the first alternative candidate to fight out the battle. However, with Shah’s expected victory, it has opened the doors for ‘winning’ alternative candidacy in Nepal. So, what has led to this new change? Why if Ranju Darsana could not win in the last election, Balen Shah is about to? We argue, in this article, that this phenomenon is due to the creation of Brand Balen Shah as a personal brand. Also, we will talk about the role of digital media in building Shah as a brand.
Shah as a personal brand
Dressed in a trademark suit with long beard and dark sun glasses, the appearance alone is an USP for Balen Shah. The dressing sense alone gave more publicity to him than what political parties aspire to get from traditional publicity campaigns. Add to that the fact that he is a structural engineer by profession and also a part-time rapper. This trademark combo has made Balen Shah an ubiquitous name irrespective of one’s own political ideology. Apparently, his trademark round sunglasses have gone out of stock in most marketplaces.
Digital revolution
While traditional parties spent a lot of money on election campaign, going as far as to feed Raksi-sukuti to their party workers, Balen Shah did his campaign without any donations or much spending. In fact, he was scathingly called an internet candidate, whose supporters were mostly online trolls or non-voters from outside Kathmandu valley. However, the reality speaks otherwise. It seems that Shah was able to turn out non-traditional voters (young people) in large numbers from digital platforms.
Converting traditional voters from traditional platforms
While most party candidates were busy campaigning on the street turning out huge masses of people, Shah quietly was making rounds on different TV channels on some of the most popular TV show’s like ‘It’s my show’ hosted by Suraj Singh Thakuri. Appearing besides a famous host alongside a popular incumbent mayor of Lalitpur, Mr. Chiribabu Maharjan, Shah quietly but surely instilled a clean image amongst traditional voters.
Summing up
It is wrong to say that Balen won clearly based on his personal brand and digital expertise alone. If we do make a proper political analysis, it seems that the current national sentiment is that of punishing UML. KP Oli came to power promising political stability. Yet with his dictatorial tendencies, he not just dissolved the government but also fractured his party and leftist movement in general. His inability to accept that this fracture would hurt his party’s prospects has led the party to become a weak opposition.
That said, we need to acknowledge how Balen Shah has come like a storm out of nowhere and forced political pundits to rethink how to carry out a electoral campaign. It is yet to be seen whether Shah will be a good mayor, however his brand is forever here to stay!
