New York's first Muslim mayor 'Mr. Cardamom'

Zohran Mamdani: New York’s first Muslim mayor, once known as ‘Mr. Cardamom’

Zohran Mamdani has made history by becoming New York’s first Muslim mayor and the youngest mayor in a century.

This time, the race to become the mayor of America’s most important city has received more attention than usual.

Mamdani, a 34-year-old member of the New York State Assembly, began the year as an “unknown candidate” but has quickly risen to the top. His election marks a shift for progressives that signals a shift at the center of the city’s politics.

US President Donald Trump urged voters before the election not to elect Mamdani and to support one of his longtime critics, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary.

“Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice,” Trump said in a social media post a day before the election. “You should vote for him and hope he does a great job. He has the ability that Mamdani doesn’t!”

Cuomo, once a dominant figure in New York state politics, responded to the endorsement by saying, “He’s not supporting me, he’s opposing Mamdani.”

Who is Zohran Mamdani?
His full name is Zohran Kwame Mamdani. He was born in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, in 1991.

His father, Mahmud Mamdani, is an Indo-Uganda-born professor of politics, while his mother, Mira Nair, is a filmmaker in Bollywood and Hollywood. She has made notable films such as Monsoon Wedding and The Namesake.

Zohran has also lived with his family in Cape Town, South Africa, but moved to New York with his family when he was seven.

He grew up in the Bronx, a mixed-gender, culturally diverse area of New York City. He graduated in Africana Studies and has been active in Palestinian rights.

In 2024, he married Syrian-American artist Rama Dowaji.

After graduating, Zohran worked as a foreclosure prevention counselor, a counselor who helps poor families avoid foreclosure due to debt, and the impact of his pro-people politics is clear.

When Zohran was known as "Mr. Cardamom"

Before turning to politics, Zohran Mamdani tried his hand at art.

He used to rap under the name ‘Mr Cardamom’ and in 2019, his song ‘Nani’ was a big hit, featuring world-renowned writer Madhur Jafri as a feisty granny.

One of his rap songs also featured Pakistani singer Ali Sethi, who has been seen supporting his recent election campaign.

Talking about his rap songs, Mamdani told a New York-based newspaper that ‘artists are the storytellers of this world, and we have to make sure that they are not just with us in name but that we are walking alongside them.’

Bread, clothes, houses and free buses are his campaign slogans.

In 2020, he ran for the New York State Assembly and defeated a ten-year incumbent. He became the first South Asian man, the first Ugandan, and only the third Muslim to be elected to the state assembly.

His campaign for mayor has attracted considerable interest from New Yorkers because he has raised issues that affect ordinary people in an expensive city like New York.

Zohran's mayoral campaign was essentially a socialist one, promising to make housing, transportation, and food more equitable in the city. However, his critics, such as the editorial board of the New York Times, believe that these plans are not financially feasible.

He has also made his Muslim faith a prominent part of his campaign, regularly visiting mosques and releasing a video in Urdu about the city's spending crisis.

“We know that standing out as a Muslim is sacrificing the protection that we sometimes get by not coming out,” he said at a rally in the spring.

His humorous approach to political campaigning:

While Zohran’s style of politics was certainly humorous, it also had a serious edge.

His campaign videos were full of social justice messages, along with Bollywood references.

In one video, he was seen explaining Ranked Choice Voting (New York’s electoral system where voters rank candidates from first to fifth) while holding five glasses of mango lassi. On a podcast, he said that his campaign had become so popular that people often asked his director mother if he had created it.

But Zohran has been quite effective even when the subject is serious.

During a televised debate, Andrew Cuomo repeatedly mispronounced Zohran Mamdani.

“His name is Mum-da-nee,” Zohran told him patiently, then smilingly referred to Cuomo’s 2021 resignation following sexual harassment allegations, saying, “I never resigned out of embarrassment. I never cut Medicaid. I never sued women based on their maternity medical records. I never did any of this because… I’m not you, Mr. Cuomo.”

It was a powerful rebuttal for a senior Democratic leader, and the video immediately went viral.

Campaign:
Zohran’s supporters include young voters, immigrants and progressives.

In neighborhoods like Jackson Heights, which are home to South Asian, Latino and East Asian communities, his campaign has become a movement, according to local media.

His volunteers were canvassing in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Spanish, in addition to English.

His campaign claims to have conducted the largest field operation in New York City history, involving nearly 40,000 volunteers and reaching more than 1 million homes.

Some organizations have also objected to Dhahran's support for the Palestinians and accusations of not recognizing Israel as a "Jewish state."

In response, Dhahran has made it clear that he condemns anti-Semitic narratives and reiterated his commitment to equality for all nations, religions and races.

Mamdani has reached out to voters who are disillusioned with the party through viral videos and podcasts, and social media, all at a time when the confidence of his own Democratic Party members is at an all-time low.

But the question is whether he will be able to deliver on his big promises and how he will face opposition from the Trump administration without any administrative experience.

His relationship with the party’s top brass is also complicated because he has become a national figure for left-wing Democrats.

Mamdani calls himself a “democratic socialist,” which means that the voices of workers should be heard, not those of big business. It’s a political style that Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have adopted, and Mamdani has often shared the stage with them.

Trump has threatened to cut off federal funding if New Yorkers elect a “communist.”

Mamdani responds that he is like a Scandinavian politician, only a little more colorful.