A Trinamool leader was shot at in Cooch Behar on Thursday night while on his way home.
Unknown assailants in a black SUV fired at Raju Dey, the karmadhyaksha of Cooch Behar-II block panchayat samity, when he was passing by Jhinaidanga, around 700km north of Kolkata, when the incident happened.
The bullets hit Dey in the right shoulder. He was admitted to a private hospital where he underwent surgery.
Local Trinamool leaders have accused the BJP of carrying out the attack.
“The BJP has brought miscreants from outside who are terrorising the people of Cooch Behar,” Trinamool district president Abhijit Dey said. “The police are investigating the matter. The black SUV in which the assailants came was caught on CCTV camera. We are confident they will be arrested soon.”
Sukumar Roy, BJP MLA from Cooch Behar Uttar, denied the Trinamool’s allegations.
“The entire district is rife with internal squabbles and corruption of the Trinamool leaders. This attack had nothing to do with the BJP. It is a consequence of their infighting,” Roy said.
The Cooch Behar police arrested Roy's son and another person in connection with the murder attempt on Raju.
The attack on Dey happened on the same day when the Trinamool’s Manteswar MLA and the state mass education and library department minister, Siddiqullah Chowdhury, was attacked on the way to Burdwan.
Though the minister escaped unhurt, his official vehicle was heavily damaged.
The minister has blamed another faction of his own party for the attack. “The attack was carried out by panchayat Pradhan Rafiqul Islam and his supporters. This was an attack on my life,” the minister said.
He claimed the police stood as spectators while a mob continued to pelt stones and hit his vehicle with lathis.
“Rafiqul Islam, the panchayat Pradhan, is behind the attack. The inspector in charge of the local police station did nothing to stop him and his supporters. I was saved by my personal security team,” said Chowdhury.
Islam said the locals had planned a demonstration against the minister for neglecting the constituency. Five arrested so far.