Explainer | How Zohran Mamdani is winning hearts of New Yorkers with social media posts

Son of established Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair, Mamdadi is striking the right connect with South Asian voters through his social media posts.

As campaign to New York City’s mayoral elections reaches its feverish pitch,  democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani in stealing a march over his rivals with social media being his main campaigning tool.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist running for Mayor, was born in Uganda and raised in the New York City.

Son of established Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair, the 33-year-old is striking the right connect with South Asian voters through his posts on all social media platforms.

In his latest Tik Tok video, Mamdani recreated a scene from the 1975 cult classic Deewar where Amitabh Bachchan comes up a dialogue that became part of Bollywood lore, 'Aaj mere paas bangla hai, gaadi hai, tumhare paas kya hai'?, which roughly translates to 'Today I have a bungalow and a car. What do you have?'

Before the film's original reply can play, the video cuts to Mamdani, mimicking Shah Rukh Khan's signature pose by responding simply, 'Aap', which means I have you.'

Mamdani's strategy is very clear and simple -- reach out to even unlikely and infrequent voters with a social media strategy featuring videos in which he speaks directly to the camera.

The heavy rotation of TikTok and Instagram videos was made possible by Mamdani’s core strategy which involved a relentless schedule of in-person campaign, often addressing crowds in languages including Hindi and Spanish.

Mamdani’s social media posts stand out for as they rarely used memes. Instead it features the Mayoral candidate making policy arguments about everyday things like the cost of groceries and subway fare.

This helped his younger supporters spread the word to their parents and grandparents as the content was substantive and approachable rather than niche or snarky.

No wonder Mamdani is able to gain a stranglehold over his rivals at least when it comes to campaigning.

Mamdani has vowed that as Mayor, he will immediately freeze the rent for all stabilised tenants, and use every available resource to build the housing New Yorkers need and bring down the rent.

(With inputs from Agencies)