The chant rose through Brooklyn’s Paramount Ballroom, a beat of hope, a pulse of change. And then, as lights dimmed and music swelled, the rhythm of Hindi cinema’s ‘Dhoom’ propelled his entrance — the young, formidable Zohran Mamdani, stepping onto the stage as though a new act in the city’s story.

He opened by invoking Jawaharlal Nehru’s historic vow of self-determination – “Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny"— and then directly addressed how the axis of power is shifting. And for one electrifying moment he dared his chief antagonist, “Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching: turn the volume up."

That line punctuated a campaign and now signifies a new political chapter in America’s greatest city.

Mamdani entered the field as a relative long-shot. But in June’s Democratic primary for New York City mayor, he stunned the political world by defeating former three-term governor Andrew Cuomo — an upset that analysts called a “political earthquake."

His surge was built on a coalition of immigrants, young volunteers, door-knockers, culture-minded canvassers, and city workers fed up with cost spikes and stagnation. When he then went on to win the November general election — becoming New York’s first Muslim and South-Asian mayor — and did so with strong turnout and a clear mandate, the story was complete.

His campaign crystallised around one central pitch: “We cannot afford the city we have been living in anymore."

But there is another layer to Mamdani’s story: his South Asian ancestry, his family’s journey, and the controversies that........

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