"Mere paas aap hain"
With this spin to the famous dialogue from Deewar, Zohran Kwame Mamdani's campaign video for the New York mayoral elections went viral not just among South Asian Americans but among many people in India and Pakistan as well.
The video cleverly brought together iconic scenes from different Bollywood movies to showcase Mamdani's key campaign promises as well as his arguments against his main rival, former Governor Andrew Cuomo. If opinion polls are anything to go by, Mamdani is closing the gap in the race to be the Democratic Party's candidate in the New York Mayoral election. With a progressive platform that is appealing to younger, diverse voters, the 33-year-old Assembly member, who was born in Uganda and raised in Queens, is hoping to become the city's first Muslim and South Asian mayor.
For a city that witnessed the 9/11 attacks 24 years ago and the surge of Islamophobia and racism that followed, this would be nothing short of historical.
So who is Zohran Kwame Mamdani? What's driving his sudden surge in the elections? And can he really win?
We'll try and answer these questions in this piece.
From Kampala to Queens
Mamdani was born in Kampala in 1991 to renowned Indian-American film director Mira Nair and prominent Indian-Ugandan academic Mahmood Mamdani. His father gave Zohran the middle name 'Kwame' after Ghanian revolutionary and statesman Kwame Nkrumah. He is said to have moved to New York at the age of seven. He attended the esteemed Bronx High School of Science before graduating from Bowdoin College with a bachelor's degree in Africana Studies.
Mamdani is married to Syrian artist Rama Duwaji and the couple live in Astoria. Before politics, Mamdani worked as a foreclosure prevention housing counsellor in Queens, helping low-income homeowners, many of them racial minorities, stay in their homes. This experience is said to have pushed him to embark upon a political career.
The fact that 500,000 of our children are going to sleep hungry every single night, 100,000 of them for the 9th consecutive year, are now homeless. We need to ensure we have a city where our children can not only have food to eat, a place to call their home.Zohran Mmdani, in an interview to NBC
A Mayoral Campaign Built on Affordability and Equity
In 2020, Mamdani made his political debut by defeating four-time incumbent Aravella Simontas, in the Democratic primary for the 36th Assembly District of New York. It is centered in Astoria, Queens and has a sizable number of Muslim and socialist voters. Mamdani declared his candidacy for mayor on October 23, 2024, and his platform is centered on issues pertaining to the working class, especially affordability of housing and transportation.
His campaign claims that nearly 80% of New Yorkers support his flagship proposal, which addresses the city's housing crisis head-on by freezing rent for all rent-stabilised tenants.
Building on his fare-free bus pilot, he is advocating for the permanent removal of fares on all city buses, along with improvements to the infrastructure, such as priority lanes and queue-jump signals, to increase efficiency. With an average donation of only $78, the lowest in the race and more than 14,000 individual donors, Mamdani's campaign is said to be a grassroots powerhouse. His use of social media, such as viral TikTok videos and a polar plunge stunt that promised a rent freeze, has helped spread his message, especially among younger voters.
What do the Polls Say?
Mamdani's campaign received a major boost after he secured the endorsement of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), a prominent face of the Democratic Party, especially in New York City. She represents New York's 14th Congressional District. With AOC's endorsement, it is clear that the progressive and socialist flank of the Democratic Party is backing Mamdani against heavyweight former Governor Andrew Cuomo.
A survey conducted by Data for Progress on behalf of a super PAC for Mamdani found Cuomo up by just two points, while a poll Cuomo's camp gave the former government a 12-point lead over Mamdani. While it is clear that Cuomo may still have a lead, Mamdani's surge is significant. In January, his support was at under 10 percent and he was sixth in the race. He has now emerged as the main challenger to Cuomo.
According to polls, Cuomo has a huge lead over Mamdani among black voters and a smaller lead among Hispanic voters. Mamdani, on the other hand, leads Cuomo among Asians, white voters and the younger voters.
Mamdani’s rise between January and May is said to be largely due to his populist plank and its resonance among younger voters, white voters, college-educated voters, and Brooklynites.
Mamdani enjoys good support among South Asian Americans across religious backgrounds. His being of mixed Punjabi Hindu and Gujarati Muslim origin has also proven to be an advantage.
Mamdani is also facing scrutiny over his stand against the genocide in Gaza. While on one hand, this has turned a section of the Jewish electorate and establishment Democrats against him, on the other hand he also had to face a few tough questions from pro-Palestine voters for not being "vocal enough".
However, videos of his criticism of Narendra Modi over the 2002 Gujarat pogrom are being circulated among Gujarati Hindu voters to turn them against him.
Since there are other candidates also in the fray, a great deal would also depend on the second preference votes Mamdani and Cuomo get from the voters of the other candidates.