Kathmandu, May 15 (PTI) Prominent Nepalese rap singer Balen Shah, who is contesting the Kathmandu mayoral election as an independent candidate, continued to lead the race for the key position on Sunday, a day after counting began.

Shah, 32, was followed by Keshav Sthapit belonging to the opposition Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) and Sirjana Singh belonging to ruling Nepali Congress.

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As 7,888 votes were counted so far Balen secured 2,926 votes while Sthapit and Singh secured 1,629 and 1,454 votes respectively.

Shah is a popular rap singer as well as an engineer by profession and has been leading in the vote counting winning support from young voters.

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Kathmandu Metropolis witnessed 1,91,186 votes casted during Friday's local level elections.

In Bharatpur Metropolitan City Mayoral candidate Renu Dahal, daughter of CPN- Maoist Centre Pushpakamal Dahal "Prachanda" is leading in the vote counting and Vijaya Subedi of opposition CPN –UML is following her.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)