Kolkata, Jan 7 (IANS): Trinamool Congress’ Murshidabad district general secretary Satyen Chowdhury was shot dead in broad daylight on Sunday afternoon.

Once a close confidant of the state Congress president and veteran party Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the deceased leader later joined Trinamool Congress.

He was shot dead while he was sitting with his close associates in front of an under-construction building at Bharatpur in Murshidabad on Sunday afternoon. According to eyewitnesses, suddenly three miscreants arrived at the spot on two motorcycles, shot at Chowdhury from point blank range and fled the spot.

A profusely bleeding Chowdhury was rushed to Murshidabad Medical College & Hospital, where he soon died. Sources aware of the development said that infighting in the ruling party is a possible the reason behind the assassination since of late, the deceased leader had started distancing himself from personal affairs because of differences with the other sections of the party’s district leadership.

As expected, a political slugfest has surfaced over the assassination. Local Trinamool Congress leader and the chairman of Baharampur Municipality, Narugupal Mukhopadhyay said that the assassination was is the handiwork of local goons enjoying the support of both Congress and CPI-M.

“The assassination was done deliberately to create tension in the area before the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls,” he said.

However, the CPI-M’s Murshidabad district secretary Zamir Mollah rubbished the allegations and said that the murder was a result of infighting in Trinamool Congress over the share of real estate promotion business.

District Superintendent Police of Murshidabad, Surya Pratap Yadav said that the police have started an investigation in the matter and attempts are on to identify the assassins from CCTV footage at the spot of murder.