Zohran Mamdani, a 34 year-old Indo-American Democrat, won the New York Mayoral election on November 4 getting 50.4% of the votes polled. His nearest rival, Andrew M. Cuomo, an Independent, got 41.6%, and Curtis Sliwa, a Republican, got a mere 7.1%.
Mamdani is New York City’s youngest Mayor in more than a century an is also the first Muslim and South Asian to be one. Both Mamdani and Virginia Lieutenant Governor-elect Ghazala Hashmi had faced anti-Islam attacks from their opponents and critics from around the country.
Zahran Mamdani’s father is an Indian Gujarati Muslim from Uganda and his mother is a Hindu from Indian Punjab. He boldly pitted himself against New York’s all-powerful White-Christian capitalist Establishment and disarmed it by highlighting the pressing problems of the common New Yorker, whether White, Black, Brown or Yellow.
His line was in sharp contrast to the Republicans’ Far Right agenda that was also markedly White Christian in its focus. By doing so, Mamdani has emerged as the most influential democratic socialist in America.
The arc of Mamdani’s success was nothing short of staggering, New York Times said. “ At the start of the year, Mr. Mamdani was polling at 1 percent, tied, as he likes to say, with the candidate known as “someone else.” Few New Yorkers recognized his name, and his own political team put the odds of winning as low as 3 percent.”
But the issues that he highlighted, chiefly the very high cost of living in the city, struck a chord in the minds of the majority of New Yorkers struggling to eke out a living in America’s costliest mega city. The city’s power brokers accustomed to running New York, saw Mamdani’s ascent as a “hostile takeover” that should be blocked at any cost.
Real estate honchos wanted President Trump to intervene and thwart Mamdani. Trump responded accusing Mamdani of being a communist, questioned his citizenship and threatened to block federal funds to New York, if he was elected Mayor.
But Trump’s tricks proved to be duds given the stark realities in New York city. James Parrott of the Centre for New York City Affairs at the New School, is quoted by “The City” as saying that New York’s economy was bifurcated between a small super rich section and a very poor big section.
“From 2019 to 2024, New York City was the only one of the 10 largest cities with a significant increase in inequality. Hourly wages adjusted for inflation jumped 34% for the highest paid 3% of workers, but grew by only 8% among the low- and middle-wage workers. Childhood poverty fell nationally but rose to one in every four children in the city. People receiving cash public assistance jumped 85% to 600,000 in those four years.”
“While the New York City economy overall may have recovered from the COVID-19 downturn, that recovery has been incredibly lopsided, with wage and income gains mainly flowing to those at the top, real incomes falling for most households and poverty and hardships rising for many,” Parrott said.
Touching upon this aspect during his campaign, Mamdani said, “New York is the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and yet, one in four New Yorkers are living in poverty, and the rest are seemingly trapped in a state of anxiety. We’ve seen that this is a city that needs to be affordable for the people who build it every day.”
Mamdani had said that he proposed to spend US$ 10 billion anew to address affordability concerns. He advocated a free bus service, free childcare, and city-owned grocery stores where goods will be affordable. He wanted to tax “the wealthiest and the most profitable corporations the fair amount that they should pay.”
According to Mamdani, the free bus service would cost US$ 700 million a year. And universal childcare costs another US$ 5 or 6 billion a year. To partially fund his schemes, he has promised to find US$ 1 billion in savings in the city budget through procurement reform and other measures.
But conservatives sneered at Mamdani’s proposals. Ryan Bourne, an economist at the Cato Institute is quoted as saying that price controls generate inefficiency.
“History shows that tighter rent control leads to lower quality rent-stabilized housing, with people in homes that aren’t suited to their needs and less investment in new construction. Rent freezes would be damaging to landlords, many of whom don’t have vast holdings of real estate. Without a profit motive and industry discipline, keeping food affordable within them would require heavy government subsidies, Bourne said.
Conservatives also feared that entrepreneurs and successful people would flee New York City for places with more favourable business environments like Florida and Texas.
Mamdani campaigned from a platform of racial and religious harmony. Speaking outside a Bronx mosque, he condemned what he called “racist, baseless attacks” from his opponents, accusing them of fuelling Islamophobia in the city.
He declared that over one million Muslim New Yorkers still face pressure to hide their identity. “The dream of every Muslim is to be treated like any other New Yorker,” he said, urging voters to reject hate politics.
But Mamdani faced a severe backlash from the Hindus of New York. A coalition of Indian American and Hindu diaspora organisations across the United States strongly condemned Mamdani for what it described as “Hinduphobic actions and statements.”
In an open letter dated October 10, 2025, the groups accused Mamdani of promoting “bigotry and bias” against Hindus, citing multiple incidents spanning several years.
The letter, signed by over 20 prominent organisations, stated that Mamdani’s rhetoric had “caused great pain to many New Yorkers of Hindu faith” and questioned his ability to engage with the community in good faith.
The coalition included Americans4Hindus, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA), the Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA), the Federation of Hindu Mandirs, HinduPACT, the India Association of Los Angeles, and South Asians for Empowerment, among others.
The document outlined several key examples of behaviour the groups found unacceptable, these included the following - In 2020, Mamdani reportedly attended a rally where organisers used anti-Hindu slurs, calling Hindus “dishonest thieves who should go drink cow urine.” The groups said Mamdani “failed to denounce these dehumanising comments” and accused him of legitimising such speech through silence.
The letter also referenced Mamdani’s alleged description of Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar, the first Hindu elected to the New York State Legislature, as a “puppet of Hindu fascists.” The signatories said this “vilified a respected lawmaker” and contributed to conspiracy theories about Hindu leaders.
The coalition disputed Mamdani’s claim that the Indian Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) represented “an attempt to strip Muslims of their citizenship.” The letter argued the CAA was intended to protect persecuted minorities — including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Christians — from neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.
The letter criticised Mamdani for not condemning repeated attacks and vandalism at Tulsi Mandir in Queens and other Hindu temples in the United States, accusing him of selective silence.
The organisations also objected to Mamdani’s co-sponsorship of New York Assembly Bill 6920, which seeks to include “caste” as a protected category in anti-discrimination laws. The letter said the bill “unfairly associates caste with Hindus and people of Indian origin,” warning it could “profile Hindus and violate their civil rights.”
Just weeks before the letter’s release, Mamdani had visited two Hindu temples in Flushing, Queens, including the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir, during Navratri celebrations. He described the visits as a way of “connecting with the Hindu heritage of my maternal family,” referencing his Hindu mother, filmmaker Mira Nair.
However, the Hindus’ letter dismissed the gesture as “performative,” saying that Mamdani “cannot seek the blessings of the Hindu faith while simultaneously endorsing narratives that vilify its followers.” The authors accused him of “using the community for photo opportunities while advancing policies that harm Hindus.”
The signatories expressed “no confidence” in Mamdani’s ability to represent the Hindu community and called on all political candidates to ensure that New York “remains a place that welcomes people of every faith.”
In three key races held simultaneously (for Virginia Governor, New Jersey Governor and New York City Mayor), the Democratic party's nominees drew in huge numbers of the electorate stressing “affordability” as the main issue.
The spotlight was on Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill, in New Jersey. Sherrill secured 56.2% support and Ciattarelli garnered 43.2%. Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and four-term member of Congress, defeated Ciattarelli, who was endorsed by President Donald Trum. Sherrill cast her victory as a referendum on the Republican President and some of his policies—from health care to immigration and the economy.
And in Virginia, former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger—also a Democrat—prevailed over Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears in the State’s gubernatorial race.
Preliminary exit poll data compiled by ABC News in the three races showed that the majority of Americans were concerned about the cost of living. Nearly half of Virginia voters said that the economy was the most important issue facing the country.
Republican President Trump got indirectly involved in the three races. But the results have gone against him in a telling manner.
A CNN poll released a day before polling, found that 63% disapproved of Trump’s performance in office. Polling analyst G. Elliot Morris noted that the 26-point net gap in disapproval is the lowest Trump has ever clocked—even in the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection, when many observers predicted his political demise.
The Economist’s poll tracker showed that Trump’s approval was underwater in all seven of the swing States he carried last November, as well as in Texas.
All of this should represent a massive opportunity for Democrats as they gear up for next year’s critical midterm elections. They face a weak and unpopular President abetted by a supine congressional leadership. He has been wielding the big stick in States with a Democratic party leadership on law and order issues while all the while brazenly enriching himself and his family at the public’s expense.
However, regrettably, the Democratic Party’s leaders are mostly oblivious to the favourable signs. They are still wary about leaving the traditional conservative path and looking for support among the working classes instead. Even Kamala Harris had baulked from taking an outrightly pro-people, pro-poor line. And she paid the price for it. Perhaps the November 4 results will nudge the Democrats to think anew.