A BJP functionary was shot at in Bengal on Wednesday morning, the day after chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar assured a violence-free and intimidation-free election in the state.

Two bike-borne assailants fired at Trilokeswar Dhali, 66, at a spot between the bus stands at Sridham and Gangasagar in South 24-Parganas’ Sagar, around 119 km south of Kolkata.

He was hit on the chest. A local resident took Dhali to Sagar rural hospital from where he was later shifted to a hospital in Joka on the outskirts of Kolkata.

The BJP blamed the Trinamool for the attack. According to BJP sources Dhali, a former secretary of the party’s Mathurapur unit, is among probable candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls.

“He is in a critical condition,” said BJP leader Jagannath Chattopadhyay. “We will bring this case to the EC’s notice. Action should be taken against the officer-in-charge of the police station. Unless the EC takes action the police will continue to play a partisan role.”

Bengal BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya said the murder attempt on Dhali was symptomatic of the problems in Bengal.

“There is no rule of law in Bengal. In the last few years leaders and workers from the SC and ST communities have been killed in Bengal,” Bhattacharya said.

The Trinamool spokesperson Tanmay Ghosh demanded an impartial probe into the attack.

“Just because the election is approaching it is not fair to blame Trinamool for every incident,” Ghosh said.

On Tuesday, addressing the media after his two-day visit to Bengal, CEC Gyanesh Kumar had said the commission’s priority was to hold polls in Bengal without violence and intimidation.

“The officers have been strictly to enforce rule of law without any fear or favour,” Kumar had said. “The EC has zero tolerance towards violence and action will be taken.”

The Union home ministry has sent 480 companies of central armed forces to Bengal though the date of elections are yet to be announced.

He had also said that the top officials from the state in the administration and police had assured of violence-free elections.