With the political temperature soaring ahead of Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday raked up the issue of cow vigilantism to target the PM Modi-led NDA government. Taking aim at BJP for its alleged support to 'Gau Rakshaks', CM Mamata compared the cow vigilantes in the state to the terror outfit Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Addressing a Trinamool Congress rally in north Bengal, Mamata said "Some ISIS in West Bengal in the name of Gau Rakshaks are trying to incite riots. Earlier they had no food to eat and used to roam around holding a stick but now they have so much money (suggesting that BJP funding them)."

The Opposition has time and again tried to corner the BJP over the issue of cow vigilantism and incidents of mob lynching.
Earlier in February after the face-off between the Centre and the West Bengal government when the Supreme Court directed the Kolkata police commissioner to make himself available to the CBI while barring the agency to arrest him, Mamata had taken a stinging jibe at BJP saying, "the nation is not run by the gun and Gau Rakshaks."

Last year when several mob lynching incidents came to light in connection with cow vigilantism, Prime Minister Modi for the first time had broken his silence on the issue and had stressed that "it was not acceptable."

"Yes. It should be done. But, killing people in the name of Gau Bhakti is not acceptable. This is not something Mahatma Gandhi would approve. As a society, there is no place for violence. No person in this nation has the right to take the law into his or her own hands in this country. Violence never has and never will solve any problem," PM Modi had said.