India, Nov. 5 -- The election of Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist of South Asian and Muslim origin, as the mayor of New York will resonate beyond that city and even the US. Mamdani's spectacular success, merely six months after he joined the mayoral race, in defiance of the Democratic establishment, and against a concerted campaign by President Donald Trump who called him "my little Communist mayor" and threatened to cut federal funds in the event of his election, suggests a pushback to the Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda that has roiled the US since last December.

There are multiple takeaways from his win. One, Mamdani, 34, built his success around a new political coalition that includes the working class, ethnic minorities...