Nepal's new prime minister chooses auspicious time to take oath of office

Audio By Carbonatix

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — When Nepal’s youngest prime minister takes the oath Friday after a landslide victory in the recent election, it won’t just be a historic political moment, it will also be a numerological one.

Balendra Shah will be sworn in at 12:34 p.m., on a day when the Himalayan nation is celebrating Ram Navami, to mark the birth of the popular Hindu God Rama.

Hindu priests say 12:34 p.m. is the most auspicious time on Friday, according to astrological calculations. It also fits the “1-2-3-4” numerological pattern. Shah is later scheduled to enter his new office at 14:15 p.m. which also fits a “14-15” pattern. Hindu priests consider such numerical patterns as auspicious as well.

Religion and astrology play a big role in Nepal, which is more than 80% Hindu and where people begin new work, get married and hold religious rituals according to auspicious times.

Shah was born in the capital Kathmandu but his family comes from the Hindu-dominated Terai region of Nepal, near the border with India.

He will take the oath of office as prime minister of Nepal before President Ramchandra Paudel at an elaborate ceremony with Hindu rituals, including “shankhnaad” or blowing of conches, and religious chanting by Hindu priests and Buddhist lamas.

Shah plans to take the oath along with his newly chosen Cabinet in the presence of officials and diplomats.

Balendra Shah, a structural engineer who rose to fame as a rap artist before becoming Kathmandu’s mayor, leads the Rastriya Swatantra Party, which won about two-thirds of the 275 seats in the bicameral Parliament’s powerful lower House of Representatives.

Shah, the 35-year-old political outsider widely known as Balen, will lead a government tasked with navigating deep public frustration with Nepal’s established parties, who were widely blamed by voters for corruption and chronic political instability.

Shah emerged as a prominent voice during the bloody youth-led uprising in September that toppled the government in the nation of 30 million people, a wave of unrest that left dozens dead.

Although he didn’t directly participate in the protests, Shah publicly expressed support for the largely Generation Z demonstrators who led the movement.