Shashi Tharoor recently released a book on Narendra Modi, titled 'The Paradoxical Prime Minister'.
Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor is quick with a joke and quicker with a jibe, and the results of the assembly elections to five states gave him enough fodder to needle the ruling BJP with one of his classic two-liners on Tuesday.
"No wonder the BJP is so upset today. The voters just gave them a triple talaaq," he said in a reference to the Narendra Modi government's plan to bring about a law aimed at curbing the Islamic practice of instant divorce. Here, the "triple talaq" signified the BJP's disappointing performance in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
Mr Tharoor does not enjoy good relations with the ruling party, which keeps making personal attacks against him over the death of his wife - Sunanda Pushkar - in 2014. A few days ago, he had filed a defamation case against Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for allegedly calling him a "murder accused".
Mr Tharoor was not the only one to pick on the ruling party. Earlier in the day, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav taunted the BJP with a playful take on its slogan for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections: "Abki baar, Modi sarkaar (This time, bring in Modi's government)."
"Abki baar, kho di sarkaar," he tweeted shortly, which translates to "This time, you have to quit governance".
Mr Yadav then followed it up with a second tweet that spoke on the subject of a united opposition. "If one and one come together to form eleven, even the tallest in power will bite the dust," he claimed.
National Conference president Omar Abdullah joined in soon afterwards, praising the Madhya Pradesh Congress for not faxing its claim to power to the Raj Bhavan in Bhopal. "Smart people. It may be a similar model to the one in Jammu," he tweeted.
This particular jibe referred to the time when the Peoples Democratic Party faxed a letter conveying its intent to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir along with the Congress and the National Conference, only to be told that the fax machine at the State Governor's residence was not working.
Barely an hour later, Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the state assembly.