Zohran Mamdani emerged as the clear winner in the Democratic mayoral primary, positioning him as the leading candidate to become the next mayor of New York City once the ranked-choice tallying process is complete.

But not the prohibitive favorite.

Andrew Cuomo faced a significant defeat, a blow that should ideally prompt him to withdraw from the race despite creating a ballot line that allows him to continue his fight in the general election.

Credit Mamdani for running an energetic campaign with a forward-looking feel, for charm and grace under fire.

Pity those who voted for him, believed his false promises and mistake his idealistic social-media feed for real life.

The blame falls on Cuomo and the lackluster Democratic Party establishment for their lack of substantial principles and their reliance on coercive tactics targeted at the city’s struggling businesses to secure enough backing to cross the finish line.

Cuomo ran on “competence” without ever actually having ever been that competent — a less-crazed leader than Eliot Spitzer, a cannier, more cutthroat politician than David Paterson and a more-engaged executive than was George Pataki in his later years, but still only a good governor if judged by what a former US president called “the soft bigotry of low expectations.”

Whichever Cuomo scandal most outraged you, the fact is that he’d run out of steam even before being run out of office, and couldn’t even summon much passion for this run at redemption.

Instead, he basically bet that lining up every special interest behind him could do the trick.

Forget any calculations as to the impact: The decent, honorable thing for him to do once his loss is official is to drop out of the fall race, and out of public life.

We remain convinced that a Mayor Mamdani would be a disaster for New York City, and believe a majority of voters will agree . . . if he faces a credible opponent in November.

This is certainly an opportunity for Mayor Eric Adams, who’s right now low in the polls thanks to his uneven first-term performance and a taint of corruption mainly created at the behest of a White House furious that he called out some obvious failings of a president whom the nation now knows was unfit for the office.

Maybe Adams can come back roaring off the mat, or another candidate such as GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa can rally the city’s silent majority behind a positive, credible vision for New York’s future.

Or maybe the city will be stuck with a mayor whose vision is nothing but unicorns, rainbows and the fantasies of the privileged progressive elite.

Mamdani certainly isn’t as inevitable an Election Day victor as the Democratic nominee would normally be, but New York City is definitely staring at that ancient Chinese curse: We live in interesting times.