Indian-origin Democrat Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday invoked India’s former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in his speech after defeating ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo in the New York mayoral elections in the United States.
“Standing before you, I think of the words of Jawaharlal Nehru,” Mamdani said in his victory speech. “A moment comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.”
This was part of Nehru’s historic speech “Tryst with Destiny”, delivered on the eve of India’s independence in 1947.
VIDEO | USA: Addressing his supporters after winning New York city mayoral elections, Indian-origin democratic socialist lawmaker, Zohran Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani), quotes former Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru in his victory speech.
He says, “Standing before you, I’m… pic.twitter.com/gydR3zPsql
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) November 5, 2025 “Tonight, we have stepped out from the old into the new,” Mamdani said. “So let us speak now in clarity and conviction that cannot be misunderstood about what this new age will deliver and for whom. This will be an age where New Yorkers expect from their leaders a bold vision of what we will achieve rather than a list of excuses for what we are too timid to attempt.”
He added: “…Central to that vision will be the most ambitious agenda to tackle the cost-of-living crisis..”
Mamdani’s speech ended with the song “Dhoom Machale” from the 2004 Hindi film Dhoom.
Zohran Mamdani's victory speech just ended with the closing song "Dhoom Machale" 😱 pic.twitter.com/DJfFLFXcOz
— Saib Bilaval (@SaibBilaval) November 5, 2025 Thirty four-year-old Mamdani, the first Muslim and South Asian to be elected as the city’s mayor, won 50.6% of the vote to Cuomo’s 41.2%. The Republican candidate also in the running was Curtis Silwa.
The election became as much a referendum on the Democratic party’s future as it was about governing the US’ largest city.
Mamdani, born on October 18, 1991, in Kampala, Uganda, is the son of Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani and acclaimed Indian filmmaker Mira Nair.
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