On April 4, 2025, the inevitable happened. The simmering conflict between Balendra Shah (Balen), the Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) and Sunita Dangol, the Deputy Mayor, exploded publicly and was captured on video. On April 24, addressing a UML Youth Rally, Dangol further widened the rift by rebuking Balen’s working style and extolling the leadership of UML Chair and Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, a Balen critic.

Balen is a young, brash, impulsive, professional engineer who is not affiliated with any political party. He focuses on lifting Kathmandu from a chaotic, dirty, unregulated city to a clean, regulated, livable one with reliable public service. He expects the federal government’s support in executing his vision. The office he took over after being elected as the mayor is infested with vested political interests.

Dangol is a young, bright, articulate, educated, mid-level leader of the CPN-UML. Her vision for Kathmandu is not much different from Balen’s, as evident in her election manifesto. However, her party affiliation constrains her ability to participate in any significant action not approved by the party. Her political boss, Oli, is known to demand absolute fealty from his party members. He does not tolerate defiance.

Oli and Balen have been at loggerheads since Balen started working on his agenda. At Oli’s behest, the UML has openly waged a campaign to undermine Balen. Until recently, Dangol appeared to have tried to balance her party’s demands to follow its leader’s will by restraining her criticism of Balen. The April 4 video proves she has decided to let her guard down and to openly follow her party’s anti-Balen campaign. Her April 24 address reaffirms her decision.

What will be the impact of her shift on KMC’s operations? However, before we discuss that, let us examine the background of the Oli-Balen conflict.

Oli-Balen conflict

Balen’s Kathmandu clean-up included dismantling oversized, unlawful commercial sign boards, vacating illegally used car parks and demolishing private and commercial buildings illicitly built on public land. Many UML voters and people with high-level connections in all major political parties owned these properties. Oli, a calculating political veteran of over five decades, was unhappy with the demolitions that adversely affected his voters and benefactors.

Balen’s request to the Oli government’s Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration to help clear the illegal occupation went unheeded. A UML Central Committee Member threatened Balen with physical harm if he did not mend his ways. Some called him a “druggist.” Dangol kept quiet most of the time, except for the occasional public airing of her frustration with Balen’s “unilateral decisions.” Balen continued with his work unabated.

Kathmandu’s face changed in two years. It became significantly cleaner and relatively more livable, although it remains affected by a very high level of air pollution, the reduction of which requires the federal government’s cooperation. Many heritage sites were restored and municipal services were improved. Balen proceeded to deliver on his election manifesto despite open hostility from the UML and the Oli government. He gave hope to people frustrated with malevolent politicians. People ignored even his brash, uncivil and crude provocations to politicians, triggered by their denial of his legitimate request for support. Oli and some in the Nepali Congress perceived his growing popularity as a clear threat to their dominance in Kathmandu.

Amid this, the Kathmandu Tower building permit scandal became public. The Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of KMC, Saroj Guragain, appointed by the Oli government, was suspected of procedural and financial irregularities in approving the revised building plan to increase the height of the Tower from the previously agreed 12 stories to 29 stories. Such changes virtually invalidate the original design. The country’s seismic design code has also been updated since the original design was approved. The new design did not incorporate the latest code, thus making the proposed 19-story building non-compliant.

Approving significant design changes in large multistory buildings like Kathmandu Tower typically requires months of review by geotechnical, structural, seismic design and environmental experts. When these review standards are bypassed, there is a valid reason to question the design’s code compliance and hold to account the person responsible for such a violation.

Balen suspended Guragain until a committee formed to investigate the allegations against him submitted its report and requested the Oli government to send a replacement officer. In Nepal, the Chief Administrative Officer (equivalent of a City Manager appointed by the City Council in developed countries) is seconded to the municipalities by the federal government. Despite repeated requests from KMC, the government refused to send a replacement for Guragain. “No one wants to go to KMC,” was the government’s shameful excuse. Due to the CAO’s absence, KMC employees’ wages could not be paid, because only the CAO has the authority to approve the payroll.

Guragain returns

On April 4, when Balen was away from his office, the government sent Guragain back to report to the KMC office. The UML, some Nepali Congress ward chairs and unpaid municipal employees were waiting to welcome him. The video of Guragain’s arrival shows a UML ward chair fighting to break the lock on Guragain’s office door. At the same time, Dangol berates a municipal police officer for refusing to unlock the door. After some scuffles, Guragain got his office back.

UML ward chairs and Dangol argue that it is unjust to suspend Guragain based on unproven corruption charges. This argument is misleading and patently absurd. It promotes corruption instead of justice. Because of such arguments, our Parliament includes several members with records of financial irregularities.

Guraguin’s irregularities were not without evidence. The charges against him are being investigated. In a recently surfaced video, ward chiefs discuss an offer of Rs50 million to approve the revised design. The municipal officers have since broken the CCTV camera and demanded that the person who circulated the video be punished. Balen’s status report, published recently, provides details of irregularities committed in approving the Tower’s design.

It is common worldwide to suspend the accused until the investigation is completed. Defending the criticism against Kulman Ghising’s dismissal, Oli himself has said that a minister with no confidence in his staff has the right to dismiss him. If the mayor says he cannot work with a corrupt officer, why should he be forced to?

Instead of criticising the mayor, Dangol could have used her influence as a UML leader to persuade the government to send a qualified, integrity-minded CAO to the metropolitan office. This would have averted the problem the government created by not sending a replacement CAO. But she chose not to do it and blamed Balen for the current mess in KMC.

Where from here?

Balen refused to succumb to Oli’s pressure. After many years of disappointing UML/Congress Mayors’ performance, ordinary Nepalis celebrated Balen’s work and vested much hope in his leadership. It remains to be seen whether he can continue his work despite the open hostility from the federal government, his deputy and the chief administrative officer. Thanks to our politicians and the politicisation of KMC, they have turned it into a mess.