Who is Maya Handa, the campaign manager behind Zohran Mamdani’s decisive victory?

Zohran Mamdani has scripted history by becoming New York City’s first Indian-origin and Muslim mayor. The 34-year-old democratic socialist won a high-stakes battle that drew attention nationwide and abroad.

Mamdani bested former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa to emerge as NYC’s mayor. His electric campaign helped propel him to victory, making him the youngest mayor of the city in over a century.

Maya Handa, Mamdani’s campaign manager, played a key role in his success. We take a look.

Who is Maya Handa?

Maya Handa is known for managing progressive campaigns. She was appointed as Zohran Mamdani’s campaign manager in late July.

Before joining his campaign, Handa ran the mayoral primary campaign of State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who lost the bid, as per a New York Times (NYT) report.

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Handa replaced Elle Bisgaard-Church, Mamdani’s chief of staff in the state assembly and the manager of his primary campaign.

Bisgaard-Church shifted to the role of his chief adviser. She told CNN in a statement in July that she’s “incredibly proud of the historic campaign we ran in the primary. While our focus now is singularly to ensure Zohran is elected as the next mayor of New York City, I’m excited to take on this new role and continue building toward the future.”

Handa previously worked with Mamdani during his time in the state assembly from Queens.
As per CNN, she has also worked for prominent progressive figures, including former New York Representative Jamaal Bowman and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren

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Warren had unsuccessfully run for president in 2020.

Handa also collaborated with the Working Families Party, a key progressive force in New York City politics.

Mamdani’s strong digital game wins him race

Experts have attributed Mamdani’s decisive victory to his strong digital campaign. The young Democrat’s digital savviness helped him gain mass engagement.

The campaign was also a nod to his South Asian roots — his mother is filmmaker Mira Nair and father, Mahmood Mamdani, a Ugandan-born scholar of Indian descent. Mamdani used Bollywood to attract voters.

On Instagram, he shared video messages in Hindi, turning to playful imagery and dialogues from popular Bollywood movies.

Billionaires ke paas already sab kuchh hai. Ab, aapka time aageya.

Billionaires already have everything. Now, your time has come. pic.twitter.com/bJcgxzt37S

— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) June 4, 2025

As per Wired, feeds were also flooded with fancams, fan art, and videos created with Mamdani as well as for him. Such online fandom is usually reserved for celebrities and singers like Taylor Swift.

“They are using their experiences from online fandom to do politics,” Ashley Hinck, an associate professor at Xavier University who teaches digital media and online communication, told the magazine. “Those are the skills to engage with culture and that means those are the skills we use to engage with politics.”

Zohran Mamdani names transition team

New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has named an all-female team of co-chairs for his transition team. This includes former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan, former first deputy mayor Maria Torres-Springer, United Way of New York City head Grace Bonilla, Melanie Hartzog, ex-deputy mayor for health and human services, and political consultant Elana Leopold.

Mamdani also called on his supporters to begin donating to his cause again to fund “a transition that can meet the moment of preparing for January 1.”

“There were a few months ago where I told supporters across the city to stop donating, and today I am asking them to start once again,” he said.

Once relatively unknown, Mamdani has now gained the spotlight worldwide. His promises on rent freezes, free childcare, city-owned grocery stores and affordable living resonated with both working-class families in Brownsville and younger professionals in Manhattan, as per a NYT report.

In his victory speech on Wednesday (November 5), Mamdani quoted India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s 1947 ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech: “A moment comes but rarely in history when we step out from the old to the new. When an age ends and the soul of a nation finds utterance. Tonight we step out from the old to the new.”

As his speech ended, the title track from the 2004 Bollywood hit _Dhoom_ reverberated across the hall.

Zohran Mamdani closes victory speech as mayor of New York to Dhoom Machale. This is like a Bollywood movie in real life 😭🔥 pic.twitter.com/2M9ic2wazO

— sohom (@AwaaraHoon) November 5, 2025

Mamdani, who has been widely criticised by President Donald Trump and labelled a “communist”, has said he is ready to speak to him. Trump earlier threatened to pull federal funding from New York City.

Mamdani said he is “interested in having a conversation with President Trump on the ways in which we can work together to serve New Yorkers, whether that be delivering on his campaign promises around cost of living or the many issues that New Yorkers have been sharing with me about the drastic impacts that the legislation that President Trump has ushered through Washington will mean for them and their lives.”

With inputs from agencies