Zohran Mamdani
Credit: Reuters
Democrat Zohran Mamdani scripted history as he won the New York mayoral contest.
Mamdani defeated former governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa to become the city's first South Asian and Muslim mayor.
"It is a mandate for change," Zohran Mamdani said after winning the mayoral election. He also added, "We will fight for you; because we are you."
He won the NYC Mayoral election, which witnessed highest turnout in decades, getting 948,202 votes (50.6 per cent), with 83 per cent of the votes in.
Cuomo fetched 776,547 votes (41.3 per cent), while Sliwa got 137,030 votes.
The Indian-origin Democrat has had huge support from the youth and the working class. “Zohran Mamdani is running for Mayor to lower the cost of living for working class New Yorkers,” his campaign had said amid a difficult economic situation in the country.
“The dream of every Muslim is simply to be treated the same as any other New Yorker. And yet for too long, we have been told to ask for less than that and to be satisfied with whatever little we receive. No more,” Mamdani had said earlier in a speech narrating his experiences after 9/11.
Mamdani is the son of popular filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani.
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.
(With agency inputs)