The Trinamool pradhan of a panchayat in Cooch Behar was shot at when he was returning home on Thursday night.

District TMC leaders accused the BJP of having a role in the attack. The saffron camp has denied it.

Sources said Animesh Roy, the head of the Lalbazar panchayat under Sitalkuchi block, was on his way home after a party meeting.

“Some goons backed by the BJP fired indiscriminately at him. He was shot in his right thigh. As BJP leaders realised they would lose the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat, they are resorting to violence. They planned to kill Animesh,” said Partha Pratim Roy, the Trinamool spokesperson in Cooch Behar.

As Animesh fell on the spot and screamed, the attackers fled. He was rushed to the Mathabhanga subdivisional hospital and shifted to a nursing home in Cooch Behar.

Known for political violence, voting in Cooch Behar was held on April 19.

A team from Sitalkuchi police station is probing the incident.

On Friday, senior Trinamool leader Abdul Jalil Ahmed went to the nursing home to meet the injured party leader.

“We have information that the BJP is involved. The police should find out those who fired at our party leader,” said Ahmed.

District BJP leaders termed the attack a fallout of Trinamool's intra-party feuds. “There is acute infighting in Trinamool across Cooch Behar. We suspect the attack is its fallout. The BJP is not involved,” said BJP district general secretary Biraj Bose.

Business strike

The Cooch Behar District Merchant Chamber of Commerce on Friday observed a business strike in Cooch Behar town, demanding cuts in charges for mutation or change of shop owner’s name and trade licence fee and improved infrastructure, among others.