Zohran Mamdani Sworn-in As New York City's 112th Mayor

Indian-origin politician Zohran Mamdani on Thursday was sworn-in as New York City Mayor by Senator Bernie Sanders, just hours after he took the oath of office in a private ceremony held at the turn of the new year in an old subway station here.

The 34-year-old Queens state assemblyman became the first South Asian and Muslim elected to the helm of the largest city in the US. Mamdani was sworn in at the old City Hall subway station by New York Attorney General Letitia James at a private ceremony attended only by his family and close advisers, held around the stroke of midnight as the city ushered in the new year.

Hours later on Thursday afternoon, a ceremonial inauguration for Mamdani was held outside City Hall, the seat of New York City government, where Senator Sanders of Vermont administered the oath of office to the 112th Mayor. Thousands of his supporters gathered outside City Hall, filling the streets in freezing temperatures as they cheered the city’s new mayor.

On the choice of the old subway station as the venue for his historic swearing-in, the New York Times quoted Mamdani as saying that when the 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 people’s 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.” Mamdani took his oath on a centuries-old Quran from the collections of the Schomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture. Anthony W Marx, President and CEO of The New York Public Library (NYPL), had earlier said that this specific Quran, which Arturo Schomburg preserved for the knowledge and enjoyment of all New Yorkers, "symbolises a greater story of inclusion, representation, and civic-mindedness”. NYPL had termed the selection of the Quran by the incoming administration as highly symbolic, both because of its connection to one of NYC’s most groundbreaking scholars and for its simple, functional qualities.

Mamdani had registered a decisive and historic win at the polls in November as he defeated Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and political heavyweight former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent candidate and received US President Donald Trump’s endorsement only on the eve of the election.

In a fiery victory speech, Mamdani had challenged Trump on immigration, heralded the toppling of "political dynasty” and said his election symbolises “hope” over tyranny and "big money” as he cited former Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to assert that the city has stepped out from the “old into the new”. “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'," he had said.

Mamdani is the son of renowned filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani. He was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda and moved to New York City with his family when he was 7. Mamdani became a naturalised US citizen only recently, in 2018.