A local Trinamool Congress leader was shot dead in front of his father by unidentified gunmen in West Bengal's Purba Bardhaman district on Tuesday, police said.
The ruling party in West Bengal alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party was behind the killing, a charge denied by the saffron party.
The incident took place when 40-year-old Chanchal Bakshi, a youth TMC leader of Ausgram's Devshala area, was returning home on a motorcycle with his father Shyamal Bakshi, the local panchayat president, from a party programme, an officer said.
As soon as the father-son duo neared a wooded area, some motorcycle-borne assailants who were waiting for them shot a few rounds at the youth TMC leader and fled the spot, he said.
Bakshi was rushed to a local hospital where doctors declared him dead, the officer said.
TMC Valki area president Arup Mirdha and Ausgram-2 panchayat samiti chief Syed Haidar Ali alleged that 'BJP goons' killed Bakshi as he was a popular leader who had contributed to the ruling party's victory in Ausgram constituency in this year's assembly elections.
Dismissing the allegation, BJP district general secretary Shyamal Roy claimed that the murder was a fallout of infighting within the ruling party.
Another TMC leader was killed in Mangalkot area in the district earlier this year.
