Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Monday taunted Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha, recalling how he had twice visited her constituency of Krishnanagar to campaign, unsuccessfully, and telling him, “Dariye mat (Don’t be afraid)”.

“Honourable Prime Minister, I would sincerely request you, since you have been here for the better half of one hour, Yeh bhi sunte hue jaaiye, dariye mat.... You came to my area twice during the campaign. Yeh bhi sunte jaaiye,” Mahua said, asking him to hear her speech too.

She had risen to speak just as Modi was stepping out of the House, appearing rattled after having sat through the speech of leader of the Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi.

“Never mind, my bad luck,” Mahua said as Modi ignored her request.

A little later, Rahul too left the House, prompting BJP members to jeer at Mahua.

“Koi baat nahi. Woh mere LoP hain. Woh humko already sunn chuke hain (No issues. He is my LoP, he has already heard me),” she said.

Mahua, expelled from the previous Lok Sabha last December on cash-for-query charges, sought to underline her triumphant return.

“Much like Lord Krishna protected Draupadi, the people of Krishnanagar have protected me. In the last year, a lot of people looked at me and said, ‘Oh Mahua, you must have lost a lot. You lost your membership, you lost your (Delhi) house’ and — by the way — I also lost my uterus to a surgery,” she said.

“But you know what I gained?” Mahua added.

Mahua said: “I gained what Rahulji said (was) freedom from fear. I do not fear you. We will see the end of you. Your ED, your CBI, your income-tax (department), your trolls, your media, your bought-out judges, nobody can scare us.”

She claimed the termination of her House membership had cost the BJP 63 seats in the general election.

“The last time I stood here, I was not allowed to speak. But the ruling party has paid a heavy price for throttling the voice of one MP,” she said.

“Mujhe baithane ke chakkar me, janta ne aapko 63 seats par permanently baitha diya. You have gone down from 303 seats to 240.”

She appeared to be referring to the way she had been prevented from speaking, in the previous Lok Sabha, on the motion for her expulsion.

She mocked Modi for claiming in Parliament in the past that he alone overweighed the Opposition, counting the number of constituencies from where the BJP had lost in 2024 after the Prime Minister campaigned there.

“Ek akela, kitno pe bhari?” she said, sarcastically using Modi’s own words against him, and claimed the BJP had lost 20 of the 23 seats in Bengal — and 15 of the 18 in Maharashtra — where Modi had campaigned.

Mahua said God had punished the BJP for its arrogance, and flagged Modi’s claim that he did not have a biological birth but was sent by God to do His work.

“By the end of 2023, this government had reached the pinnacle of their arrogance, where this parliamentary democracy was replaced by the monstrous super-cult, the cult of the supreme leader. The non-biological leader born of the Paramatma who stood in his House and proclaimed, ‘Abki baar chaar sau paar (This time, 400-plus)’,” she said.

“Whether in Greek mythology or Indian mythology, if you act with arrogance towards the Gods, you’ll be punished.”

She went on to say the “Gana Devata” (the people) had punished the BJP with a victory that was “tantamount to a defeat”.

She referred to the BJP’s defeat in Faizabad-Ayodhya — where Modi had consecrated the Ram temple ahead of the polls — and adjoining seats.

“Aap ghus ke maarte theh, janta ne aapko ghus ke maar diya (You used to enter others’ homes to hit them, the people have entered your home and hit you),” she said, drawing cheers from the Opposition benches.

Modi had spoken of having “entered others’ homes and hitting them” in reference to strikes on terrorists on Pakistani territory.

Amid loud cheers from the Opposition benches, she added: “Their 303 seats brute majority, the rajtantra (monarchy), has been reduced to 240 seats by the loktantra (democracy). They are still living in the age of the sengol.”

She accused the Election Commission (EC) of turning a blind eye to the hateful speeches made by BJP campaigners including Modi.

“The Opposition has won in spite of the EC and not because of the EC,” she added, hitting back at praises showered on the poll panel in the President’s address.

Mahua’s party colleague in the Rajya Sabha, Jawhar Sircar, sought to punch holes in the BJP’s propaganda on governance. The World Bank Government Efficiency Index, he said, ranked India at 66.

“We are behind Botswana, Fiji, Mauritius, Lithuania, Latvia…. If we spent more time on actual governance rather than on advertising slogans and taglines made by ad agencies…, things could have taken place in last 10 years,” he said.

Sircar flagged the Trinamool complaint about the Centre denying Bengal funds for centrally sponsored schemes and for dealing with calamities, alleging an economic blockade of the state.