A sickle allegedly used by the assailants.

A Trinamul Congress worker was shot and hacked to death in Santipur on Tuesday with the murder being blamed on an intense feud between local MLA Arindam Bhattacharjee and civic chairman Ajoy De in the party.

Sources said deceased Santanu Mahato, 34, was loyal to the Ajoy De faction.

Mahato’s family members alleged that about a dozen armed men allegedly allegiant to Bhattacharjee had arrived at Brahmhapara in ward 13 of the Santipur town on Tuesday afternoon and started firing indiscriminately.

The miscreants spotted Mahato who was taking tea and attacked him. They first shot Mahato when he tried to escape and hacked him after his slump. He was declared dead at the Nadia district hospital in Krishnagar.

Police said the deceased had faced a number of criminal cases and had been released on bail recently.

Mahato’s wife Jhumpa has alleged Bhattacharjee was behind the murder. “The party workers who killed my husband are all close aides to the MLA. My husband has been killed because he was loyal to Ajoy De. The MLA used to implicate in false cases those TMC workers who did not support his group,” she said.

“It was a pre-planned murder as the assailants had disconnected CCTV cameras in the area before the incident,” Jhumpa added.

Bhattacharjee has denied the charges. “Any death is unfortunate. But it is a fact that the man who was killed had a criminal background. He was not a Trinamul worker. I suspect the murder had something to do with personal enmity. I have told police to book the assailants”.

Santipur municipality chairman De, however, said the deceased man was a Trinamul worker. “He had a long time association with Trinamul.”

But he declined comments on the allegations by the victim’s wife against the MLA.