New Delhi: New York’s primary mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is an outlier. For US President Donald Trump, he is a “100 percent communist lunatic” who has said the Israeli Prime Minister will be arrested if he comes to the city, while for global politics, he is an “earthquake”.
Back in India, his ancestral homeland, the Left and the liberals embrace him and praise him for being anti-Modi, while the Hindu right-wing scorns him for terming the prime minister a “war criminal”. Even senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi sees him as “Pakistan’s PR”.
Mamdani has been the talk of the town ever since he emerged as the Democratic nominee, following the party’s primary contest Tuesday in which he beat former governor Andrew Cuomo.
Mamdani ran a grassroots campaign focused on small donors, affordability, especially of housing, racial justice, Palestinian rights and pro‑trans healthcare. His campaign videos had Bollywood references to connect with Indian Americans and he spoke in Hindi, Urdu and even Bangla, apart from English.
Mamdani identifies as a “democratic socialist” but the label doesn’t fully capture him. He is a political phenomenon. Following his victory, US Vice-President J.D. Vance sent congratulations on social media to the “new leader of the Democratic Party”.
Mamdani, 33, is the son of renowned Indian filmmaker Mira Nair and Mumbai-born Ugandan academic and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani. Zohran was born in Uganda and currently represents New York’s 36th District. A member of Democratic Socialists of America, he became a US citizen in 2018 and identifies as a Muslim.
Today, he is seen as not just political reckoning, but a candidate for controversy.
His vocal support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that promotes sanctions against Israel, refusal to denounce anti-Zionist slogans like “globalise the Intifada”, and criticism of PM Narendra Modi for the 2002 Gujarat riots have polarised opinion at home and abroad.
In 2020, he joined protests in Times Square against celebrations of the Ram Mandir’s construction in India. Videos on social media from that day show some demonstrators chanting offensive slogans, terming Hindus as h*****i, while Mamdani stands by. Critics in India thus argue that he is unfit to govern a city with a sizable Hindu population.
Three days before the Democratic mayoral primary, a Hindu-American group flew a banner over the Hudson River reading “Save NYC from Global Intifada. Reject Mamdani”. The campaign was backed by Indian Americans for Cuomo, who accuse Mamdani of divisive rhetoric and ignoring attacks on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh. The American Hindu Coalition, a pro-Trump group, also endorsed Cuomo, despite his resignation as governor in 2021 over sexual harassment allegations.
In 2023, as New York’s youngest South Asian assemblyperson, Mamdani was part of an event in New York, Howdy Democracy, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was due to visit. The event was meant to “complicate the narrative that the diaspora supports the government in India”.
Speaking to ThePrint then, Mamdani had said: “I think it is critically important to speak up and be explicit that this is not something that the entire diaspora is supportive of… there is a significant portion of the diaspora that is deeply concerned and in opposition to the current regime’s practices which attempt to refashion India in the image of a Hindu nationalist government.”
“As privileged members of the diaspora, we are more removed from the repression and thus we have the freedom to speak up and challenge the repression and that is the responsibility of being part of the diaspora,” he added.
Mamdani’s critics see his stance as needlessly antagonistic. But he has not shied away from his Indian roots.
In a 2020 interview, Mamdani had talked about it. “Being Indian is something that I’m proud of and it’s a big part of who I am. If I just spoke about my pride in being Indian and didn’t talk about politics, I would face far less pushback and conflict with other members of the Indian diaspora. But what’s the point of doing that?” he asked.
Mamdani’s rise, capped by a shocking primary victory over Cuomo, has captured global imagination.
“The Democratic establishment has been disappointing and Zohran has filled that void with possibility, inclusion and hope,” filmmaker Shruti Ganguly, who has known Mamdani since he was 12, told ThePrint. “He isn’t afraid to meet people who disagree with him, in fact he seeks it out to build bridges.”
“While centrists like Chuck Schumer and Eric Adams stuck to elite donors and vague compromises, Zohran offered clarity, consistency, and community,” she said. “He didn’t just build a grassroots movement—he built a forest.”
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Strong views
Endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both democratic socialists, Mamdani built his campaign around working-class struggles, particularly those of New York’s marginalised communities. And he won.
However, several of his utterances have drawn criticism.
During a campaign event in May, when asked if he would share the stage with Modi if he was in New York, Mamdani that he would not.
“My father, his family comes from Gujarat in India and his family is Muslim. I am Muslim and Narendra Modi helped to orchestrate what was a mass slaughter of Muslims in Gujarat to the extent that we don’t even believe there are Gujarati Muslims anymore, and when I tell someone I am, it is a shock to them that this is the case. And this is someone who we should view in the same manner as (Israel PM) Benjamin Netanyahu: a war criminal,” he said at the open forum.
In a podcast interview with Lex Fridman earlier this year, Prime Minister Modi said the discourse around the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat was an attempt to create a false narrative. He said his political opponents in power at the Centre wanted him to be punished but the courts cleared his name.
In an interview with Mehdi Hasan last December, Mamdani was asked about Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in light of the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants against him for alleged war crimes in the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Mamdani criticised the lack of leadership at the federal level in the Democrats, saying, “It’s time we step up and show the leadership that’s missing.”
When asked if, as mayor, he would welcome Netanyahu to New York, Mamdani responded: “No—as mayor, New York City would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu.”
At a later primary debate in May, Mamdani affirmed Israel’s right to exist. When pressed on whether he believed it should exist “as a Jewish state”, he clarified: “As a state with equal rights.”
Tensions rose after Mamdani, in a podcast with The Bulwark this May, declined to condemn the phrase “globalise the intifada”. Palestinians view the phrase as a call for liberation, while Jewish and pro-Israel groups interpret it as a call to extend violent uprisings beyond Palestine.
Mamdani described the phrase as a call for Palestinian equality. Critics, including the US Holocaust Museum, condemned his remarks as “outrageous and especially offensive”.
Mamdani’s own faith too seems to have become a flashpoint, particularly in India.
When asked why, Ganguly is blunt. “We’re living through a global wave of authoritarianism. Islamophobia, antisemitism, and racism are tools used by those in power to divide and distract. But let’s be clear: his position is in New York City, one of the most vibrant and dynamic cities in the world, where people showed up in historic numbers to support him.”
Even on the Middle East, Ganguly said, Mamdani hasn’t wavered in his stance. “He’s been clear about standing up to oppressive regimes. His position is rooted in human rights, where everyone should live with dignity and be safe. In a political culture obsessed with triangulation, that kind of integrity and consistency are rare.”
‘Future of the Democratic Party’
In New York, Mamdani’s political ascent was equally improbable.
A State Assembly member from Queens since 2020, he was largely unknown outside activist circles until he sprinted into the freezing Atlantic waters this January shouting: “I’m freezing… your rent as the next mayor of New York City!”
The footage went viral. He began polling in single digits. Then came the coalition building.
Unlike past progressive candidates who leaned heavily on white liberal districts, Mamdani’s campaign surged among Black, brown, and immigrant communities. His campaign knocked over 750,000 doors and mobilised more than 30,000 volunteers, many of them first-time voters, according to media reports.
The 24 June Democratic primary saw record turnout, especially in working-class neighbourhoods across Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.
For Ganguly, Mamdani’s campaign wasn’t just about ideology. It was about a radical shift in how politics is done. “He raised money from the very people he hopes to serve. He has shown up in churches, mosques, gurdwaras, synagogues and community centres. He continues to show up.”
His opponent, Cuomo, had everything Mamdani didn’t: experience, name recognition, institutional support. But Mamdani had movement, even when most had written him off.
As the Cuomo campaign poured tens of millions of dollars into ads painting Mamdani as anti-semitic and dangerous, Ganguly said the contrast couldn’t have been clearer.
“Cuomo leaned into Islamophobic fear-mongering. Zohran responded by building bridges—with Jewish allies, working-class families, and first-time voters. That’s the future of the Democratic Party.”
His message—affordable housing, universal childcare and free public transit—might sound utopian to critics, but Ganguly disagrees.
“He’s not reinventing the wheel. These are ideas backed by economists and rooted in what’s already worked. Everyone stands to gain.”
An oped in The Guardian noted: “Mamdani’s widespread appeal represents the total collapse of a Democratic party establishment that had weathered Donald Trump’s first term with rhetorical resistance, and fumbled the beginning of the second with triangulating appeasement. This year, the favourability of the Democratic party has collapsed to record lows, not because of the popularity of the Trump administration or the Republican party, but because of its unpopularity with its own voters.”
If he wins in the November elections, Mamdani would become New York’s first Muslim and Indian-American mayor, and its youngest in over a century.
Yet, the election is far from guaranteed. Embattled incumbent Eric Adams, under investigation for corruption, is running as an independent. Cuomo may still re-enter. Republican Curtis Sliwa and independent Jim Walden also remain in contention.
According to a report in The New York Times, since 2020, Mamdani has passed around 20 bills, but only two saw fruition. While his 2020 bus fare pilot campaign ended soon, his bill targeting pro-Israeli charities in 2023 was dismissed.
Still, with Democrats outnumbering Republicans 6 to 1 in New York City, Mamdani remains the favourite to win.
His campaign didn’t just go viral—it knew how to stay there. As The New Yorker put it, the videos weren’t just abundant; they were “good videos”.
There are broader nuances. Mamdani’s victory seems to have tapped into growing frustration within the Democratic Party’s base. Backed by endorsements from Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, he quickly became a leading voice on the Left.
In his victory speech, Mamdani stood before supporters in Jackson Heights and offered a simple reflection: “It’s not about who you are,” he said. “It’s about who we are—and what we deserve.
Ganguly believes Mamdani represents something bigger than a single campaign. “This isn’t about performative progressivism. It’s about building coalitions that actually deliver. He isn’t just moving votes—he’s moving people.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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