Indian-origin Zohran Mamdani has taken oath just after midnight to become the youngest mayor of New York City. Accompanied by his wife Rama Duwaji, mother Mira Nair and father, Mahmood Mamdani, Zohran Mamdani was sworn in on his grandfather’s Quran by state Attorney General Letitia James at an abandoned City Hall subway station.
In his first remarks as mayor, Zohran Mamdani wished a Happy New Year both “inside and outside the tunnel,” and said, “This is truly the honor and the privilege of a lifetime.”
“I cannot wait to see everyone tomorrow as we begin our term. After just having taken my oath to become the mayor of the city of New York, I do so also here in the old City Hall subway station – a testament to the importance of public transit to the vitality, the health, the legacy of our city,” the New York City mayor said.
Speaking of the station which was chosen as the location for his oath ceremony, Zohran Mamdani said, “When Old City Hall Station first opened in 1904 – one of New York’s 28 original subway stations – it was a physical monument to a city that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working peoples’ lives.”
“That ambition need not be a memory confined only to our past, nor must it be isolated only to the tunnels beneath City Hall: it will be the purpose of the administration fortunate enough to serve New Yorkers from the building above.”
He concluded his speech with: “Let the words we’ve spoken together, the dreams we’ve dreamed together, become the agenda we deliver together,” he said. “New York, this power, it’s yours. This city belongs to you. Thank you all so much … and I will see you later.”
Mamdani will be sworn in again, in grander style, in a public ceremony at City Hall at 1 pm by US Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of the mayor’s political heroes. That will be followed by what his office is billing as a public block party on a stretch of Broadway known as the “Canyon of Heroes,” famous for its ticker-tape parades.
Zohran Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to filmmaker Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani, an academic and author. His family moved to New York City when he was 7. He became an American citizen in 2018.
He worked on political campaigns for Democratic candidates in the city before he sought public office himself, winning a state Assembly seat in 2020 to represent a section of Queens.
