BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Friday cited the parallel of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim to slam chief minister Mamata Banerjee for backing Trinamul MP Mahua Moitra in the cash-for-query controversy. He went on to make fresh allegations against Mahua, whose expulsion from the Lok Sabha Dubey has endorsed.

“If Dawood Ibrahim also contests from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, then I think there is a 99 per cent chance that he will win the election. So, if Mamataji’s theory is correct, this means that Dawood Ibrahim is not a traitor,” the BJP MP told news agency ANI when asked about Mamata’s endorsement of Mahua.

Mamata had on Thursday accused the BJP of “planning the expulsion” of Mahua from Parliament and stressed that this would end up boosting the electoral prospects and popularity of the Trinamul MP from Krishnanagar.

Nishikant, who had written to the Lok Sabha Speaker accusing Mahua of taking money to ask questions in Parliament, which led to the matter being taken up by the ethics panel of the Lok Sabha, was responding to the first public endorsement of Mahua by Mamata.

The ethics panel has recommended Mahua’s expulsion from the Lok Sabha and an investigation against her on the alleged “money trail” behind the repeated questions she has raised in Parliament over industrialist Gautam Adani.

Mahua has dismissed the allegations against her, terming them “false and baseless” and claiming that she was being victimised for exposing the wrongdoings of the Adani group.

There’s an ironic aspect to Dubey dubbing Azamgarh in eastern UP a fertile ground for terror accused like Dawood Ibrahim. The Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat is currently held by the BJP’s Dinesh Lal Yadav aka Nirahua, who is also a Bhojpuri singer.

Dubey also used the occasion to level fresh charges against the Trinamul MP and target the Opposition INDIA bloc for “being associated with anti-national elements”.

“Mahua Moitra didn’t provide login credentials to just (Dubai-based businessman) Darshan Hiranandani. It was logged in from multiple places — Delhi, Bengaluru, San Francisco. This is a big conspiracy… It is the history of the INDI alliance that they like corrupt, traitorous individuals like Dawood Ibrahim,” Dubey added.

The BJP MP appeared to accuse Mahua of sharing her parliament portal login credentials with multiple people. The Trinamul MP, during the course of the controversy, had acknowledged sharing her login credentials with businessman friend Darshan Hiranandani to allow his staff to type out questions on her behalf. She had claimed that sharing login credentials relating to the portal, as distinct from the personal parliamentary login MPs have, with staff was routine practice among most other MPs too.