Indians lit up social media on Wednesday to celebrate Zohran Mamdani’s election win as New York mayor after he thanked his Indian-born parents, quoted a historic speech by India’s first prime minister and turned the victory rally into a Bollywood-style street party.
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“We are proud of him. He has done a great job,” Mamdani’s maternal uncle Vikram Nair said. He said he was flooded with requests from friends and family to throw celebratory parties.
“We will plan it soon,” he said, adding that the family would love to have Mamdani take part.
The 34-year-old, Ugandan-born Mamdani is set to be New York’s youngest mayor in more than a century – and the first Muslim one – when he takes office on January 1.
At a boisterous victory rally late Tuesday, Mamdani addressed supporters with a speech inspired by Jawaharlal Nehru’s iconic “Tryst with Destiny” address, delivered on the eve of India’s independence in 1947.
“Standing before you, I think of the words of Jawaharlal Nehru: ‘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.’ Tonight, we have stepped out from the old into the new,” Mamdani said.
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