Although Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election on November 4 in the United States, the reactions to the his historic victory have been pouring in from all corners of the world. The global reception largely has to do with his multi-cultural roots as the city’s first Indian-American and also the first Muslim winning mayor candidate.

Yet another person to join his celebratory parade online was ex-Nickelodeon heartthrob Avan Jogia, who has a lot in common with the new NYC mayor-to-be than most people may know about.

Avan Jogia reacts to Zohran Mamdani’s NYC mayor win

The Victorious star took to his Instagram Stories to pen a heartwarming confession about his own feelings after a fellow Indian-origin person had earned a landmark victory in the world of US politics.

“Also for what it’s worth, as an Ugandan Indian myself, watching a politician shake hands with people from all walks off life and backgrounds with a rakhi on his wrist means something to me,” Avan Jogia wrote on Instagram a few days ago.

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What Zohran Mamdani and Avan Jogia share in common?

In simple words, both are prominent figures of Indian descent with Gujarati and Ugandan ties.

Those familiar with Jogia often associate him with his Canadian identity. However, like Mamdani, the multi-hyphenate artist who co-founded the LGBTQ online organisation Straight But Not Narrow has diverse roots all thanks to his parents’ backgrounds.

Zohran Mamdani himself is now the mayor-elect of New York City. On top of his American connection, the 34-year-old assembly man was actually born in Uganda to his parents, Mahmood Mamdani and Mira Nair, who are both of Indian descent. While his father, who is a renowned scholar, is a Gujarati Muslim born in Mumbai, his mother is from a Punjabi Hindu family.

Jogia, on his part, was born in Vancouver to a mother with English, Welsh, Irish and French-Canadian ancestry, according to IMDb. Meanwhile, the Twisted actor’s father is a British Indian expatriate, according to Hollywood Life. One of Avan’s decade-old X posts outrightly confirms his family’s deep ties to Uganda.

“My grandmother tells the story of moving to the UK From Uganda in the 60s,” he wrote on X in March 2015. “At first people would stop & tell her how beautiful her sari was.”

How Avan Jogia’s reaction to Mamdani NYC win has dealt out a big reminder

The former Nickelodeon stalwart’s Instagram Story about Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win instantly helped netizens jog their memories about how several mainstream icons in the public spotlight are proud members of the Gujarati community.

His recent social media activity was quickly followed by comments like “Gujarati core” and “They are all Ugandan Indians (Gujaratis) btw” as many took note that beyond Mamdani and Jogia, even actress-singer Naomi Scott and pop singer Charli XCX were Gujaratis one way or another.

Born Charlotte Emma Aitchison, the “Brat” hit-maker is half Indian and half English, and daughter to a former nurse from a Gujarati family in Uganda, as per the Guardian and GQ. And then, Smile 2‘s Naomi Scott is an actress from London, whose mother is from Uganda and is of Gujarati Indian descent, according to E Online.

In addition to Zohran and Mahmood Mamdani, Avan Jogia, Charli XCX and Naomi Scott’s shared Ugandan-Indian and Gujarati link, FBI Director Kash Patel and British politician Priti Patel fall into the same category.

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With Jogia’s message fuelling the surging focus on the “Uganda-gujarati alliance,” another user wrote on X, “I am not even American, but seeing a south Asian man be a role model and be received with so much love and warmth heals something in me. Especially after all the hate that made me withdraw in this entire year.”

Yet another person quipped that with Charli XCX’s “Brat” taking over social media trends in 2024 and Mamdani’s mayoral win becoming the talking point in 2025, Jogia “can be the half-Ugandan Indian of the year for 2026.”

Notable figures’ Ugandan-Indian ties turn back the pages of history books

Many others flipped the conversation in a self-deprecating fashion, joking about how British colonialism had resulted in Indians being everywhere around the world. Jogia’s own confession about his Ugandan roots left many baffled as a new piece of trivia unfolded in front of them.

“I knew he was Indian but the Ugandan bit surprise me so I did my research and damn… The British are always on the crime scene, aren’t they,” someone tweeted. And another playfully added, “All these Ugandan Indian men are so hot.” Someone else chimed in, “I’m sorry if I’m stupid, but because of Mamdani, I learned that there is a large Indian presence in Uganda.”

On the other side of the same conversation, a history lesson sparked the interest of many, while also shining the light on the lesser-remembered story of Indians in Uganda. For the unversed, a significant fraction of Indians were brought to Uganda in 1894, while still under British rule, to build railways and work on farms and plantations.

Many of those who stayed back in the country went on to acquire powerful seats in the nation’s economy, which Uganda’s ruler Idi Amin came to detest, as did many others. And so, the situation prompted the 90-day expulsion order in 1972, forcing tens of thousands of Indians (or of Indian descent), among other Asians, to leave the country and pick other global destinations like the US, Canada or the UK as their new homes.

In the post-Amin regime, the exodus was ultimately reversed, with then-Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni encouraging the return of Indians to Uganda.