Manish Shukla

Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Manish Shukla was shot dead by unidentified assailants in North 24 Parganas Titagarh area in West Bengal on Sunday. As per reports, during the shootout, Shukla was in conversation with some locals and party workers near an area police station.

Following Shuklas death, party members called for a 12-hour bandh in Barrackpore on Monday and blamed the ruling Trinamool Congress for his killing. 

In the meantime, Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who informed about the incident in a late night tweet, summoned the state home secretary, and Director General of Police Virendra, to the Raj Bhavan at 10 am.

Governor Dhankhar in his tweet wrote, ACS Home @MamataOfficial and DGP @WBPolice have been summoned at 10 am tomorrow in the wake of worsening law and order situation leading to dastardly killing of Manish Shukla, Councillor, Titagarh Municipality in political party office.

As reported in The Indian Express, Shula, who was a member of the BJP’s Barrackpore organisational district committee and a former councillor, was shot dead after returning from a meeting in Habra along with other party members. 

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He was chatting with a few people, when several masked gunmen approached him on motorbikes and shot several rounds of fire, informed the local sources. 

The assailants shot Shukla on his chest and forehead, after which he was immediately taken to a private hospital in Kolkata but was declared dead on arrival. 

Before joining BJP in 2019, Shukla was a member of TMC. He had a firm and strong visibility and was considered to be a local strongman, who had survived a similar attack in 2018. During that time, Shukla was supervisor at Titagarh wagon factory and a member of the ruling party.