Criminals allegedly backed by the Trinamul Congress beat up and shot at BJP activist Ashutosh Singh, 25, at Noapara in North 24-Parganas on Saturday night.

Singh, a resident of Ichhapur’s Aurobindo Pally, is the nephew of a BJP mandal president. He survived the attack as the bullet grazed his chest.

Singh was admitted to the B.N. Bose Subdivisional Hospital with multiple injuries. Trinamul said BJP’s internal wrangling had led to the attack.

The incident occurred around 11.30pm at Aurobindo Pally while Singh was chatting with his friends near his home after dinner.

Local sources said a group of around 20 miscreants had arrived on motorcycles, singled him out and thrashed him with iron rods. Before leaving, the criminals shot at Singh also. The miscreants escaped when some local residents rushed to the spot.

Family members have said Singh is popular and known for his organisational abilities. The relatives said alleged Trinamul-backed goons had threatened the BJP worker on a number of occasions.

Noapara police began a probe and detained two persons in connection with the alleged attack.

A police team was deployed in the area.

Local MLA Sunil Singh, a Trinamul turncoat who is now in the BJP, said: “Trinamul leadership in the Noapara Assembly constituency has been afraid of losing its support base. They do not like Ashutosh and threatened him repeatedly.”

“The miscreants were engaged by Trinamul bosses to kill him only because he is a BJP activist. This is commonplace across the state now as the ruling party has become desperate. It seeks to scare people, especially youngsters, for being BJP sympathisers,” said the MLA.

Rejecting the allegation, Trinamul Noapara town unit chief Gopal Majumder said: “The attack on the youth was the fallout from an internal feud in the BJP.”

“The BJP has turned into a party of miscreants, busy in internal bickering. None from Trinamul was involved in the attack,” he added.