Zohran Mamdani: imminent(grant) historical win

Picture Credit : @ZohranKMamdani/X

Zohran Mamdani, scripted history on November 4, 2025, by becoming New York City’s first ever Muslim mayor-elect. A youngest since 1917, Mamdani led a stunning grassroots campaign with a message of affordability, probably, putting an end to a political class dominated by wealthy donors.

Calling the result “a mandate for change,” he added, “The future is in our hands; we have toppled a political dynasty.” Mamdani defeated both a Republican challenger Curtis Sliwa and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was backed by a formidable coalition of billionaires who spent millions in an effort to block his rise.

Delivering his victory speech before an exulted crowd in Brooklyn, the 34-year-old mayor-elect declared, “Tonight, New York has stepped from the old into the new.” Quoting from Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech,  Mamdani said, “Standing before you, I remember the words of Jawaharlal Nehru. A moment comes, which 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.” Him quoting Nehru soon became viral on all social media accounts.

Mamdani continued, “New York, tonight you have delivered a mandate — for a new kind of politics, for a city we can afford, and for a government that delivers exactly that. Years from now, may our only regret be that this day took so long to come.”

During his speech, Mamdani also addressed U.S. President Donald Trump, who had repeatedly threatened to cut federal funding to New York if Mamdani won. “If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him,” Mamdani said.

“So hear me, President Trump — since I know you’re watching — I have four words for you: turn the volume up.” He was later joined by his mother, filmmaker Mira Nair, political theorist father Mahmood Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji.

Mamdani mobilized a coalition of ethnic and religious communities often overlooked by citywide candidates, bringing his economic message directly to thousands of immigrant New Yorkers. He said categorically, “New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants and as of tonight, led by an immigrant.” There was no fear, no apprehensions on his face while declaring the same. An immigrant himself who moved to the US with his parents, Mira Nair, an Indian, and Mahmood Mamdani, a Gujrati Muslim.

Mamdani’s campaign built one of the largest door-to-door operations knocking every possible door and making more than three million phone calls. His campaign was multilingual, multi-faith, and unmistakably working-class where volunteers canvassed in Urdu, Bangla, Arabic, and Spanish and outreach events were also held in mosques, gurdwaras, temples and churches.

In his victory speech, Mamdani also said that Islamophobia and antisemitism have no place in New York anymore. “We will build a city hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of antisemitism. Where more than 1 million Muslims know that they belong, not just in the five boroughs of this city, but in the halls of power,” Mamdani said. He further added, “No more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election.”

Since the New Yorkers’ have put in their trust in Mamdani with a historical win, great responsibilities lie on him in fulfilling the promises he proposed during his campaign such as free childcare, rent freezes, free bus transit, and government-run grocery stores aimed at tackling the city’s affordability crisis.