A democrat and younger leftist, Zohran Mamdani, received New York Metropolis’s mayoral election on Tuesday (native time), scripting historical past to develop into the primary Indian-origin Muslim mayor of town.
Mamdani will probably be sworn in on January 1. He would be the youngest particular person to carry the workplace in a century and can exchange first-term Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped out of the race amid low ballot numbers and a sequence of scandals.
Mamdani, who identifies as a democratic socialist, obtained 50.3 p.c of the votes, main by greater than 8 factors in opposition to former Governor Andrew Cuomo, operating on an unbiased line after his loss to Mamdani within the major, with 96 p.c of the vote counted. Anti-crime crusader and Republican Curtis Sliwa received 7.1 p.c.
Who’s Zohran Mamdani?
Zohran Mamdani is the Ugandan-born son of Oscar-nominated filmmaker Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani, a Columbia College professor and scholar of colonialism.
Mamdani moved to New York at age 7, attended Bronx Excessive College of Science and Bowdoin School in Maine, and tried his hand at a number of careers, together with as a rap artist, engaged on his mom’s movies, and as a foreclosure-prevention counselor at a nonprofit named Chhaya earlier than turning towards politics.
He grew to become a naturalised US citizen in 2018, and he first received election to the Meeting in 2020, representing a district in western Queens.
Zohran Mamdani’s insurance policies
What do Zohran Mamdani’s insurance policies on immigration, housing, Israel-Hamas battle and international relations appear to be?
Housing
Mamdani campaigned on guarantees to freeze the hire on greater than 1 million stabilised flats, and use each accessible useful resource to construct the housing New Yorkers want and convey down the hire.
Mamdani has promised to “decrease prices and make life simpler” for New Yorkers as town will get “too costly”.
Median asking rents have surged to roughly $3,400 a month, and town’s housing emptiness charge reached 1.4% final yr, the bottom in recorded historical past.
Israel-Hamas battle
Mamdani criticised Israel’s navy motion in opposition to Hamas in Gaza and Iran whereas advocating for Palestinian rights.
The Occasions of Israel describes him as “a far-left anti-Israel activist,” and the Washington Submit calls him “a vocal pro-Palestinian advocate.”
As per the studies, Mamdani described Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault as a “battle crime” however asserted that the US authorities is complicit in what he phrases Israel’s “genocidal battle” on Gaza.
Throughout an election debate, he stated he believes Israel has a proper to exist, however as a “state with equal rights.” Mamdani’s candidacy reportedly alarmed a swath of the Jewish neighborhood, together with a number of the metropolis’s main Reform rabbis.
As Mamdani received the New York Metropolis mayoral polls, a Rabbi and supporter of Zohran Mamdani stated, “…We sit up for a brilliant and exquisite future. We’re going to ship a message to the world and present them an instance of Jewish individuals dwelling underneath a Muslim Mayor in the USA of America…”
He added, “All of us think about Mr Mamdani a good friend of the Jewish individuals as he expressed himself many occasions why he criticises and condemns the crimes of Israel….”
On immigrants
In his victory speech on Tuesday, Zohran Mamdani stated, “New York will stay a metropolis of immigrants, a metropolis constructed by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant.”
Mamdani’s relation with India
Zohran Mamdani has repeatedly emphasised his Indian Muslim id throughout his campaigns. In his victory speech too, he invoked India’s former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to say, “A second comes however hardly ever in historical past once we step out from the outdated to the brand new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation lengthy suppressed finds utterance. Tonight, New York has carried out simply that.”
As Mamdani completed his speech, audio system reportedly blasted the Bollywood hit: “Dhoom Machale.
Nevertheless, Zohran Mamdani was earlier criticised by sections of the Indian-American neighborhood who accuse him of divisive rhetoric and “open bigotry” in the direction of Hindus.
He as soon as described Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar, the primary Hindu-American elected to the New York State Meeting, as a puppet of “Hindu fascists.”
In 2020, he joined a protest in Occasions Sq. in opposition to the development of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, the place some demonstrators had been filmed chanting anti-Hindu slogans, in line with the New York Submit.
He has additionally been crucial of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
