'This is the victory of the Bangladeshi aunty': How Zohran Mamdani’s campaign captivated South Asian immigrants in New York
“This is the victory of the Bangladeshi aunty who knocked on door after door until her feet throbbed and her knuckles ached,” Mamdani said in his victory speech
Zohran Mamdani's stunning win in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary has sparked jubilation across the city's South Asian immigrant communities - particularly among Bangladeshi women, many of whom were at the heart of his grassroots campaign.
In his victory speech after the 24 June primary, Mamdani made it clear who he credits for the win.
"This is not my victory. This is ours," he said.
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"This is the victory of the Bangladeshi aunty who knocked on door after door until her feet throbbed and her knuckles ached. This is the victory of the 18-year-old who voted in their first-ever election," he said.
As reported by The Economic Times, Mamdani, who is now set to become the Democratic nominee in the 4 November mayoral election, has already made history. At 33, he could become the youngest mayor in the city's history, and the first Muslim to hold the position.
His progressive message, paired with his immigrant identity and modest financial background, struck a deep chord with voters, particularly among the city's Bangladeshi and South Asian communities.
To reach them directly, Mamdani teamed up with New York City's only Bangladeshi council member, Shahana Hanif, to release a campaign video message in Bengali ahead of the primary. Hanif, too, secured the Democratic nomination for council on the same day.
Despite not yet taking office, Mamdani's rise has already generated city-wide and national excitement. His supporters view him as a symbolic rejection of both Trumpism and establishment politics, something Mamdani himself leaned into.
"I am Donald Trump's worst nightmare as a progressive Muslim immigrant who actually fights for the things that I believe in," he declared.
Born in Kampala, Uganda, Mamdani immigrated to New York with his parents at the age of seven. His mother is Mira Nair, the celebrated Indian filmmaker behind "Monsoon Wedding" and "Mississippi Masala," while his father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a renowned political scientist at Columbia University.
Though a newcomer to electoral politics, Mamdani became a US citizen only in 2018 and was elected to the New York State Assembly soon after, where he made headlines by joining a hunger strike with taxi drivers.
His campaign platform promises sweeping changes aimed at working-class New Yorkers. Mamdani proposed banning rent increases for the next four years on rent-stabilised apartments, offering free city bus services, universal childcare, and opening city-subsidised grocery stores for low-income residents. He also vowed to create 200,000 new affordable apartments across the city.
It's a bold agenda, one that rallied thousands of South Asians, particularly Bangladeshi "aunties," to volunteer for door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, and voter outreach. That sense of shared identity and generational pride has made Mamdani a household name across many immigrant neighbourhoods in Queens and the Bronx.
While the mayoral election is still five months away, Mamdani has already achieved something remarkable. He has rewritten what grassroots power can look like in one of the world's most diverse cities. And he's done so with the unshakable support of those who believed in him most - the aunties of New York.
