List of Prime Ministers, Presidents & Kings of Nepal (1806–2026)

Nepal is a federal democratic republic in which executive power rests with the Prime Minister (the head of government), while the President serves as the ceremonial head of state. As of July 2026, the Prime Minister is Balendra 'Balen' Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), sworn in on 27 March 2026 following the general election held on 5 March 2026. At 35, he is among the youngest people ever to hold the office.

The head of state is President Ram Chandra Paudel (also romanised Poudel), a veteran Nepali Congress leader who took office on 13 March 2023 as Nepal's third president. Under the 2015 Constitution (Constitution of Nepal 2072 BS), the President is elected by an electoral college of federal and provincial lawmakers for a five-year term, renewable once, and acts largely on the advice of the Council of Ministers.

This directory brings together three separate chronologies that people commonly search for as a single 'leaders of Nepal' list: the Prime Ministers (heads of government) from the early nineteenth century to the present, the three Presidents since the republic was declared in 2008, and the Shah kings who ruled until the monarchy was abolished. Nepal's earlier era pages cover the wider political history; this page focuses on the enumerated office-holders.

The office of head of government in Nepal predates the modern republic by nearly two centuries. Bhimsen Thapa, who held power from 1806 as Mukhtiyar (chief minister), is generally counted as Nepal's first effective head of government, though the formal title 'Prime Minister' came into wider use from the 1840s. The most consequential figure of the nineteenth century was Jung Bahadur Rana, who seized power after the Kot Massacre and became the first Rana Prime Minister on 15 September 1846, founding a hereditary Rana premiership that dominated Nepal for 104 years while the Shah kings were reduced to figureheads.

The Rana oligarchy ended with the 1951 (2007 BS) revolution, after which Nepal cycled through party governments, a royal Panchayat system (1960–1990), the 1990 multiparty restoration, and the post-2006 republican era. Counting is genuinely contested: because several individuals served multiple non-consecutive terms and interim caretakers are counted differently, reputable sources have described Balen Shah variously as roughly the 40th individual and the 47th premiership by term. This page therefore lists office-holders chronologically rather than asserting a single disputed ordinal number.

In the post-2015 constitutional period, the premiership passed rapidly between the three dominant parties — the Nepali Congress (NC), the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) or CPN-UML, and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre). K. P. Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' alternated in and out of office through shifting coalitions, while Sher Bahadur Deuba served several separate terms across the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, making him one of Nepal's most frequently returning prime ministers.

The most recent change of government followed the September 2025 Gen Z protests, one of the most consequential mass movements in Nepal's recent history. Demonstrations began on 8 September 2025, triggered by a short-lived government ban on major social-media platforms and fuelled by deeper anger over corruption, unemployment and perceived elite privilege. The security response turned deadly; the Nepali Army later reported a total of 76 deaths across the unrest.

Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli resigned on 9 September 2025 as the protests escalated. On 12 September 2025, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Sushila Karki was appointed interim Prime Minister — becoming the first woman to hold the office in Nepal's history — in an unusual process in which protest organisers had canvassed names online. On the same day, President Paudel dissolved the House of Representatives and set a fresh general election.

That election was held on 5 March 2026 (roughly Falgun 2082 BS). The Rastriya Swatantra Party, a younger anti-establishment party, emerged as the leading force, and Kathmandu's mayor Balendra Shah was appointed Prime Minister on 27 March 2026. His rise marked the first time since the late 1990s that a single party had secured a governing mandate at the centre without immediately depending on the traditional NC–UML–Maoist blocs, and it made a former rapper and structural engineer the country's head of government.

The office of President was created when the newly elected first Constituent Assembly abolished the monarchy and declared Nepal a federal democratic republic on 28 May 2008 (Jestha 2065 BS). The President replaced the king as head of state but with a mainly ceremonial role, safeguarding the constitution and performing formal duties such as appointing the Prime Minister who commands a parliamentary majority.

Nepal has had three presidents. Ram Baran Yadav of the Nepali Congress was elected by the Constituent Assembly and served as the first president from 23 July 2008 to 29 October 2015. Bidhya Devi Bhandari of the CPN-UML followed, becoming Nepal's first woman president; she served two terms, from 29 October 2015 to 13 March 2023. The incumbent, Ram Chandra Paudel of the Nepali Congress, was elected in March 2023 and assumed office on 13 March 2023.

The Vice-President of Nepal serves as the deputy head of state and acts in the President's absence. Under the current constitution the President is chosen indirectly by an electoral college made up of members of the federal Parliament and the seven provincial assemblies, weighting votes between the two tiers, rather than by a direct popular vote.

Before it became a republic, Nepal was a monarchy ruled by the Shah dynasty, founded by Prithvi Narayan Shah, the king of the small hill state of Gorkha who launched the unification of modern Nepal. He conquered the Kathmandu Valley in 1768–1769 and is remembered as the founder of the unified Nepali state; he died in 1775. For much of the century after 1846, however, real power lay with the hereditary Rana prime ministers, and the kings reigned largely as symbols until King Tribhuvan helped end Rana rule in 1951.

The final chapter of the monarchy was dramatic. King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah and much of the royal family were killed in the Narayanhiti Royal Palace massacre on 1 June 2001. His son Dipendra was declared king while comatose and died days later, after which Birendra's brother Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah ascended the throne. Gyanendra's assumption of direct executive power in 2005 provoked the 2006 people's movement (Jana Andolan II / Loktantra Andolan).

Following that movement, an interim parliament stripped the monarchy of most powers, and the first Constituent Assembly formally abolished the monarchy on 28 May 2008, making Gyanendra the last king of Nepal and ending more than two centuries of Shah rule. Former royals became private citizens, and Narayanhiti Palace was converted into a public museum.

Readers comparing different 'list of Prime Ministers of Nepal' sources will notice varying totals and ordinal numbers. This is not an error so much as a difference in method. Some lists begin the count with Bhimsen Thapa in 1806, others only from Jung Bahadur Rana in 1846 or from the 1951 democratic era; some count every separate term (so an individual with four terms adds four numbers), while others count individuals once. Interim and caretaker governments are also treated inconsistently.

Dates in Nepali records appear in two calendars: the Bikram Sambat (BS) calendar used officially in Nepal and the Gregorian (AD) calendar used internationally. Bikram Sambat runs roughly 56–57 years ahead of AD, so, for example, the 2015 constitution corresponds to 2072 BS. Where this page gives a precise event, the AD date is authoritative; approximate BS equivalents are provided for orientation only.

For the most reliable and up-to-date record, consult the primary Nepali institutions: the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers for the head of government, the Office of the President for the head of state, and the Election Commission of Nepal for election results. Party affiliations can shift between elections, and Nepal's coalition governments change frequently, so always check a current official source before citing a present-day office-holder.