Zohran Mamdani becomes New York City’s first Muslim mayor

New York: Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old Indian-origin democratic socialist lawmaker, pulled off a stunning victory in the fiercely contested New York City mayoral elections, becoming the first South Asian and Muslim to be elected to sit at the helm of the largest city in the US.

Mamdani, the Ugandan-born son of Indian origin parents—his mother is renowned filmmaker Mira Nair, and father is academic Mahmood Mamdani- defeated former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.

He won the NYC Mayoral election, getting 948,202 votes (50.6 per cent), with 83 per cent of the votes in.

He had been the front-runner in the NYC Mayoral election for months, and Tuesday defeated Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and political heavyweight former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent candidate and received US President Donald Trump’s endorsement only on the eve of the election.

Cuomo garnered 776,547 votes (41.3 per cent) while Sliwa got 137,030 votes.

The NYC Board of Elections said that two million votes were cast, for the first time since 1969, with check-ins in Manhattan at 444,439, followed by Bronx (187,399), Brooklyn (571,857), Queens (421,176) and Staten Island (123,827).

Mamdani had upset Cuomo in the Democratic primary race for New York City mayor and was declared victorious in June this year.

“Zohran Mamdani is running for Mayor to lower the cost of living for working-class New Yorkers,” his campaign had said as the young politician continued to garner support among the youth and working-class New Yorkers, who have been reeling under the burden of high costs and job insecurities amid a tough economic and political climate in the country.

With Mamdani’s win, New York City and the US entered a new political and ideological era with the democratic socialist now at the helm of the citadel of capitalism.

Mamdani was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda and moved to New York City with his family when he was 7. He became a naturalised US citizen only recently in 2018.