Zohran Mamdani, an Indian-origin Muslim democratic candidate, won the New York City Mayoral elections and was elected as the new NYC Mayor on Tuesday night. Being a son form a Gujrati Muslim father, Mamdani quoted former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in his victory speech.
Addressing the crowd, Mamdani pulled up former PM Nehru's quote of his "Tryst with Destiny" speech, which was delivered by him on the eve of Independence Day in India in 1947 after the freedom.
"Standing before you, I think of the words of Jawaharlal Nehru. A moment comes but rarely in history when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance," Mamdani quoted Nehru in front of a US crowd, where cheers can be heard from the supporters in return.
Mamdani, who is now the new Mayor of New York, said that the city has stepped out 'from the old into the new'. He added that he will fulfil the demand where New Yorkers were expecting their previous leaders, but they gave only the list of "excuses" to the people of the city.
"So, let us speak now with clarity and conviction that cannot be misunderstood, that what this new age will deliver and for whom. This will be an age where New Yorkers expect from their leaders a bold vision of what we will achieve rather than a list of excuses for what we are too timid to attempt," he said during his winning speech.
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Mamdani is from Ugandan-Indian heritage, also promised that he will prioritise addressing the cost of living in the city and other financial crises faced by people. "Central to that vision will be the most ambitious agenda to tackle the cost-of-living crisis that this city has seen," he added.
Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor congratulated Zohran Mamdani's mother, Mira Nair for Mamdani's victory.
"Wonderfully apt! Warmest congratulations to my old friend @MiraPagliNair on her son @ZohranKMamdani’s spectacular victory and to his uncles, my Stephanian friends Vicky and Gautam Nair, for their nephew’s triumph!," Tharoor wrote on X while sharing The New York Times website's screen grab where Mamdani shows victorious with 50.6% of votes, while Andrew Cuomo was on the second spot with 41.2% vote share.
Who Is Zohran Mamdani
Now elected as the new New York Mayor, the 34-year-old is the son of Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani and Indian filmmaker Mira Nair. He migrated from Uganda to South Africa and then to New York City in his early years. He attended the Bank Street School for Children and Bronx High School of Science. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 2014 with a degree in Africana Studies, where he co-founded a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.