Six persons, including a youth supposedly close to an elected panchayat head of the BJP, were arrested on Thursday in connection with a recent attack on the BJP candidate of the Malda Assembly seat.

On April 18, BJP candidate Gopal Chandra Saha was in his car in Old Malda block when gunshots were fired at him and a bullet hit his neck.

Thursday’s arrests reignited the political blame-game of the BJP and Trinamul.

The arrested are Bittu Chowdhury, Akash Mandal, Arjun Ghosh, Bikash Haldar, Suman Ghosh and Sayan Saha.

Akash is close to Ukil Mandal, head of the BJP-run Sahapur panchayat. “He (Akash) is ill and has no connection with the incident,” said the BJP’s Ukil Mandal.

Trinamul alleged the attack bared the BJP’s feud.

Though no name was stated in the FIR lodged by Saha’s family, BJP leaders had verbally claimed that Trinamul-backed goons had organised the attack.

After these arrests, Jahar Ghosh, the block Trinamul president of Old Malda, slammed the saffron camp. “So far, BJP leaders were blaming us for the attack. Now one of the six persons is close to a BJP leader. The BJP’s internal feud has come to light,” he said.

Ajay Ganguly, district BJP spokesperson, said they were waiting for more details.

In a separate incident, the police on Friday found four sophisticated firearms and magazines each from Kaliachak, and arrested one person in this connection, Humayun Sheikh.