Kathmandu: Few politicians in Nepal rose as quickly as Rabi Lamichhane, 50. Before politics, he was already one of Nepal’s most recognisable faces — a loud, brash TV news presenter whose anti-corruption pitch made him a household name. When he launched Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) just before the 2022 election, he offered a simple promise: the old parties had failed and a cleaner alternative had arrived. In the first parliamentary election since the Sept 2025 Gen Z uprising, that promise found its biggest audience yet.
Rabi’s appeal rested on distance from Nepal’s traditional leadership. He did not come up through the party structures, but through the small screen, where outrage was not hidden and grievance was turned into performance. “He did not sell ideology. He sold impatience,” an observer wrote in 2024.
