In the backdrop of Manish Shukla's death, a councillor of Titagarh Municipality who was shot on Sunday by two bike-borne assailants, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh alleged that the law and order situation in the state is worsening and gradually it is becoming a Mafia-ruled state like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

BJP leader Manish Shukla was shot at Titagarg in North 24 Parganas district. "West Bengal is slipping into a Mafia-raj like a situation like in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The way a councillor was shot dead in front of a police station by using a stengun is shameful.

Dilip Ghosh

Law and order situation of Bengal is worsening with each passing day

The police are hand in glove in the conspiracy to kill a mass leader like Shukla," Mr Ghosh claimed. Mr Ghosh wondered whether free and fair polls would be possible in the state if such an anarchic situation continues. Assembly election in the state is due next year.

"More than 120 BJP workers have been killed in the state in the last few years," he said. The TMC leadership mocked Mr Ghosh for his comments. "It is good that he has accepted that Mafia raj exists in BJP-ruled UP and Bihar. We are happy that at least for once, he has spoken the truth," senior TMC leader and minister Firhad Hakim said.