Muralidhar, chief executive of venture capital firm Phase One Ventures and a former employee of Canva, attributed his success to a door-knocking campaign. "The day after I was chosen as the candidate for Tāmaki, the next day I went out door-knocking, and that's the most important thing," he said. He said he had knocked on about 16,000 doors during the campaign, crediting party support and volunteers. "Tāmaki appreciates someone with a commercial background, and my campaign was launched by the prime minister," he added. He also raised $15,000 for a community patrol in Glen Innes.
On election night, Muralidhar told RNZ the mood at his campaign gathering was upbeat. "The mood is really great, and I'm looking forward to seeing a centre-right government coming in and the National Party doing well," he said.
Tāmaki is one of the country's three wealthiest electorates and has been a National stronghold since Robert Muldoon won it in 1960. The seat was held by National continuously until 2023, when ACT deputy leader Brooke van Velden defeated Simon O'Connor in a surprise result. Even during Labour's landslide 2020 victory, when Labour won the Tāmaki party vote, O'Connor secured more than 50% of the electorate vote. The electorate has voted Labour only twice in its history.
Nationally, the election remained close on Saturday night. Labour held a narrow lead over National in the party vote, separated by less than one percentage point as counting nears completion. Preliminary projections suggest that National, ACT and New Zealand First together could secure a narrow parliamentary majority, but special votes have yet to be counted. The special-vote total is due to be revealed on 27 November.
The result is Muralidhar's second attempt to enter Parliament after losing Auckland Central to Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick in 2023. He describes himself as a proud Kiwi-Indian and said he wanted to ensure the Indian community's concerns were heard. "I'll be there for the community in regards to making sure that the community is understood and heard," he said. He thanked Tāmaki voters and said he intended to fulfill a promise his father made during the campaign: "My dad said in one of the campaign events that 'my son will make sure that he serves the community really well', and I intend to make sure that it comes true."