Despite Congress raking up Akhlaq's killing issue we won elections then, will win this time too: Amit Shah

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Tuesday expressed confidence that the party will win the coming elections in Rajasthan like they had won earlier even when the Congress party had raked up issues like Mohammed Akhlaq's lynching and award wapsi.

Addressing BJP office bearers and workers during the one-day visit to Jaipur in Rajasthan, Shah said, "Whenever elections come up, they rake up the issue of Akhlaq's killing, award wapsi (return of award). The BJP had won elections when the Akhlaq issue and award wapsi happened and the party will win this time too even if they (Congress) bring up some other issue. The Modi government or the Raje government has done nothing that you need to bow your head," he said.

He claimed the Congress has tried to create a state of confusion in the country and referred to the lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri over alleged cow slaughter and the 2015 protest in which a group of writers returned their awards.

The lynching in Dadri, the first of many across the country, was followed by a string of attacks by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan for more than a year.

In 2015, Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched in Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri over suspicion of possessing beef. Despite massive protests by the opposition and several noted literary figures returning their awards to the government protesting ‘intolerance’ in the country, the BJP had swept the elections.

In July this year, Rakbar Khan, a resident of Haryana, was lynched by an angry mob in Rajasthan’s Alwar district on suspicion of cow slaughter. Before that, a 55-year-old dairy farmer, Pehlu Khan, was killed by a mob in Alwar. A video of a mob raining blows on him had triggered outrage across the country.