Nepal, Dec. 29 -- The Rastriya Swatantra Party and Kathmandu mayor Balendra (Balen) Shah's team on Sunday morning reached a unity agreement, heralding a radical shift in Nepal's political landscape. The Post's Thira Lal Bhusal and Purushottam Poudel sat down with former lawmaker Shishir Khanal, a key RSP negotiator, to inquire how the deal was sealed.

How did the talks with Mayor Shah start and the unity become possible?

For the past several weeks, Balenji's team and we were in conversation. It started after we got some indication of interest from the mayor. The first indication from his team was mostly around the fact that they would only support alternative forces, that would include Gen Z and other major stakeholders from alternative...