Bijan Das, a 49-year-old Trinamul Congress leader and deputy panchayat pradhan of Guma in the Habra-II block area in North 24-Parganas district, was shot dead at Ashokenagar in the district on Sunday night.
The incident occurred around 11pm on Sunday when Das was attending a birthday ceremony of one of his party workers in the Ashoknagar police station area.
He was involved in a heated exchange of words with Goutam Das, a local businessman. Suddenly, a miscreant allegedly fired two rounds at Bijan from a point blank range when the latter and Goutam were arguing.
Bijan sustained severe bullet injuries on his ear and head respectively and was declared dead at the state-run Barasat Medical College Hospital later.
Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, local Trinamul Congress MP from Barasat, rushed to the hospital soon after she came to know about the incident.
Police have registered a case of unnatural death and preliminarily suspected that the incident might be a sequel to an old rivalry between Bijan and Goutam.
Locals in the area also felt that internal feud among two groups of Trinamul Congress might also be instrumental behind the incident.
Police have detained several persons following preliminary investigations.
Bijan was an influential leader of the ruling party in the Ashoknagar and Habra areas. He was the panchayat pradhan of Guma (I) panchayat for 10 years since 2003. He was made deputy panchayat pradhan in 2013. He was also the president of the Habra block (II) Trinamul Congress.