The immediate fallout of the 2025 Gen Z uprising was the collapse of the CPN-UML and the Nepali Congress (NC) coalition government headed by KP Sharma Oli, and the dissolution of parliament. A government was formed under Sushila Karki, a former chief justice, based on the understanding reached between Gen Z leaders and the president. The Army Chief facilitated the procedure at Balendra (Balen) Shah’s prompting. Karki’s first task was to hold a mid-term election within six months, along with the maintenance of law and order.

Yet, the most significant consequence of the uprising was the end of the three-party dominance in Nepali politics, involving the NC, the CPN-UML and the Maoists. These parties had been ruling the country in intervals, like the game of musical chairs. Since no single party could secure a majority of seats in the House of Representatives, they relied on each other’s strength to establish a majority. Oli, Sher Bahadur Deuba and Pushpa Kamal Dahal thus abused parliamentary arithmetic in the name of democracy.

In Nepali politics, majority alone is not the criterion for governmental stability. The NC majority government had also collapsed due to internal party manoeuvrings, leading the country into prolonged instability, beset by rampant corruption, the politicisation of institutions, and creeping trends of kleptocracy and the distribution of patronage. Those who had been fed by widespread cynicism about the top politicians, both in government and outside, seemed to take revenge by defeating them in the March 2026 election. And they did it by voting a new party to power, led by Rabi Lamichhane, a former television anchor, and Shah, a rapper, an engineer and former mayor of Kathmandu, with an almost two-thirds majority. Lamichhane had already formed the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) after a few independent candidates, mostly youths he chose, won the election. His strong appeal on TV had made him popular, prompting him to launch a party. Shah had made his mark by winning the post of Kathmandu Metropolitan mayor on the crest of his popularity amongst youngsters. On the eve of the election, Shah’s tactical entry into the RSP, presenting him as the prime ministerial candidate, had electrifying effects on electoral politics.

Almost all political parties have been infested with internal feuds and atrophy, as top leaders didn’t like to transform parties by updating them with new leadership and dynamism. Sensing that the NC would not be able to stand up to the challenge of a new party like the RSP, the second-generation leaders wanted to rebuild the party by replacing the old guards led by Deuba, but they failed to persuade him to give up the leadership role. The two general secretaries, Gagan Thapa and Biswa Prakash Sharma, instead held the Special Party Convention to elect new leaders by defying Deuba.

Thapa and Sharma were unanimously elected the president and the vice-president, respectively, with new hope and enthusiasm to make the NC the first party in the election. Despite such last-hour efforts made by the new NC leadership to turn the tide in their favour, the election results turned out to be disastrous for the party as the new RSP wave created by the duo—Shah and Lamichhane—as well as by the negative picture painted against the governments of Oli, Deuba and Dahal, trounced the old parties. The anti-old parties wave was so powerful that all candidates, regardless of their merits and backgrounds, could win elections under the RSP symbol.

The NC suffered greatly as the efforts of new leaders proved futile, reducing it to 38 seats in a house of 275. All old leaders except Dahal lost. Oli, who thought of himself as invincible in his constituency, lost to Shah by more than 50,000 votes.

Cracks within the parties and the ‘anti’ wave created against the performances of old leaders had dramatically changed the political landscape. If the NC had already been afflicted by internal bickering, short of a formal split, the left front had undergone a spree of splits. Splintered groups that eventually turned into one-man parties have weakened the left movement. It can be assumed that sooner or later, the UML may also undergo a major change due to Oli’s obduracy. Whether it would remain a single party or split into parts is unknown.

Cracks are ubiquitous in other parties as well. Most of them are increasingly becoming irrelevant, owing to their divisiveness, leaders’ egos, individualistic behaviour and ideological obscurity. Many of them are hollowing out, both in ideological and organisational sense. The Rastriya Prajatantra Party’s further decline, to the point of extinction, cannot be ruled out. The UML and the Nepali Communist Party (dominated by former Maoists) also have attritional trends, as no credible leaders capable of rejuvenating the parties are on the horizon. Most Madheshi parties have been swept away, giving no indications about the prospect.

The RSP would likely be forced to leave political space to the NC over time. For it would not be easy for the party to continue under the existing leadership structure dominated by the two opposite personality traits of Lamichhane and Shah. Shah’s entry into national politics is primarily guided by his temptation to be the prime minister without having to shoulder any political responsibility. Lamichhane’s mission is to build the party by making it a permanent alternative force.

Opposition parties, in general, are either weakened due to both intra-party conflicts and the rise of the RSP as a major challenger. Yet, many things will depend on the RSP’s image of being a viable party. If it flounders as other parties have in the past, the field would obviously be occupied by the NC, notwithstanding its internal problems. Since the present time does not support the old, tested leaders, the new NC leaders may come back with confidence. But if the new leaders can reinvent the NC, as promised by them, before the election, it needs to be seen.

To the credit of opposition parties in parliament, they have played an effective role in making the ruling RSP defensive, particularly on the issue of the organic relationship between parliament and the prime minister. The performance of the leader of the opposition, Bhishma Raj Angdambe, in particular, could be appreciated for raising the level of debate to new heights, befitting parliamentary standards.