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Zohran Mamdani: Bhaiya Next Door? or the Future Mayor of the NYC?
Zohran Mamdani’s rise shakes up NYC politics
In October 2024, Zohran Kwame Mamdani announced his candidacy for the position of Mayor of the New York City, and on June 24, 2025, after defeating Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates, he was voted in to be — New York City’s Democratic Primary Mayoral. However, the Mayoral elections are due to be conducted in November.
To a lot of people (including, me), election of a non-white person seemed almost unnatural but what is NYC, if not the BIG APPLE of opportunities. As an Indian, I feel proud that a brown bhaiya, has been able to sway votes in his favour, the fun fact being, HE IS NOT AN INDIAN HIMSELF. Mamdani was born to Mira Nair (Punjabi Hindu) and Mahmood Mamdani (Gujarati Muslim) on October 18, 1991 in Kampala, Uganda. He moved with his family to NYC when he was seven year old and has been here since, holding both, Ugandan and American citizenships.
However, one won’t be wrong to note that Mamdani was always interested in politics. At Bank Street School for Children, Upper West Side, he successfully ran for a mock election, advocating “equal rights, anti-war [policy] that proposed spending money on education rather than the military”. The legacy continued when he founded the School’s Chapter for Students for Justice in Palestine at Bowdoin College, Maine, where he graduated in African Studies in 2014.
He entered the NYC politics by acting as a volunteer for Ali Najmi’s Campaign for the 23rd District of City Council in 2015. By 2017, he had joined the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), where he worked for the campaign of Khader El-Yateem, a Palestinian Lutheran Minister and Democratic Socialist, running for New York City Council from Brooklyn. In the New York State Assembly, he has been active since 2020, when he won New York’s 36th State Assembly District, including Astoria and Long Island City in Queens. DSA backed him up, and his campaigned focused on the issues of - housing reform, prison and police reform, and public ownership of resources. He won the election without any opposition from the Republicans in November 2020, with being reelected in 2022 and 2024 as well.
The picture in question.
On October 23, 2024, Mamdani announced that he will be running for the Mayor of the NYC in 2025. His campaign includes rent freeze in rent-stabilized housing and free city buses for commute. He is also advocating for state-run grocery stores for driving down the prices of commodities. He plans to provide support for child care and construct 200,000 new and affordable housing units, while supporting reforms in public safety and imposition of $30 minimum wage by 2030.
But, isn’t it against human nature to let good things happen? Huh? Soon after Zohran M. announced his nomination, the opposition launched their attacks on him. Nancy Mace, US Representative, suggested that Mamdani is connected to 9/11 attacks, and the “assertion” was supported by Donald Trump (45th and 47th President of the United States) (yep, that’s true, why would I lie, I am not him). Marjorie Taylor Greene, Representative, posted an image of Statue of Liberty, covered in a Burqa.
CAIR (Council on Amercian-Islamic Relations) shared that there a has been an increase in circulation of Islamic content on X (formerly Twitter), a day after the announcement of Mamdani’s nomination. Andy Ogles, Republican US Representative, urged Pam Bondi, Attorney General to denaturalize the citizenship of Zohran and deport him, he has referred to Mamdani as - “little Muhammad” and “communist, socialist, and anti-semitic”. All of this, caught a larger heat when on July 1, 2025, Donald Trump, claimed that Mamdani has been living in the US illegally (without any sort of evidence, ofc). He threatened Mamdani through the means of arrest and restriction on funding, if the latter didn’t comply with the actions of mass deportations, undertaken by the current Trump Administration.
Zohran Mamdani sharing a bid to become Official Candidate of the Democratic party for 2025 NYC Mayoral Elections
And still, we all can see Zohran Mamdani, dancing and singing for his campaign with bright colors of blue and yellow, raising genuine concerns of injustice and welfare, and openly urging people to not vote for Andrew Cuomo (another candidate from the Democratic Party, who has served multiple positions in the Federal office, already), claiming him to be a “not-so-nice” While Uncle.
After all of this, when he won as the “official” candidate of the Democratic Party from NYC, it is still “not” water under the bridge. In my opinion, his victory does reflect that the people of NYC, want to have a representative that works in the favour of their “basic” demands instead of loading their own pockets, but the people of the US? Maybe not. Even our own Colonizers (yea, the OG white people) were able to accept Rishi Sunak as their Prime Minister, when their own Liz Truss, failed terribly, but the other-white people, hmm, that is something to work on.
Even if Mamdani becomes the Mayor of the NYC (which I sincerely hope for) it is highly likely that he will be targeted by the Trump Administration and other members of the Republican Party, etc. He would have to literally operate under a continuous 24/7 survelliance. I feel that it can act as a barrier for him to achieve his potential and bring real reforms, and will succumb him to “bureaucratic” pressures, which is definitely saddening. Thus, deafening the spirit of “true” democracy. Although, it won’t be the first time for the US, would it?
But again, yeah, personally, I am here for the show, and it has just started.
By Harshna Lalwani
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