Ahead of the panchayat elections in West Bengal, a bomb was hurled at two Trinamool Congress workers riding a motorcycle in the state's Birbhum district, killing them.

The police gave this information on Sunday.

Though the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress alleged that the killings were a result of infighting in the TMC, the ruling party pointed fingers at the Congress.

The district superintendent of police was transferred within 24 hours of the incident, but the administration claimed that the move was not linked to him.

Police said TMC workers Newton Shaikh and Laltu Shaikh, brother of the local panchayat chief, were going somewhere on a motorcycle when some miscreants hurled a bomb at them.

Newton died during the night, while Laltu succumbed to his injuries at SSKM Hospital in Kolkata, where he was shifted from Rampurhat Hospital in the district, he said.

Family members of those killed in the incident alleged that the bomb was hurled by Congress goons as the party was apprehensive of the "rising popularity" of both in the area ahead of the panchayat elections due this year.

At the same time, Congress state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary denied his claims and said that the party's organizational strength in Margram is very less and the party is not involved in any attack.

"Everyone knows that both the attacker and the victim belong to the TMC," claimed Chowdhary.

BJP's national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said, "TMC workers themselves are attacking and getting killed in the battle of loot over 'cut money'."

This situation will end only after the removal of this government.

West Bengal minister and senior TMC leader Firhad Hakim, however, denied that any rivalry within the party was behind the killings.

Hakim questioned whether there could be involvement of Naxalites in this attack as Birbhum district shares border with Jharkhand where Naxalites are active.

Hakim said in Kolkata that the police should investigate all aspects to find out how and why the two were attacked.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal government on Sunday transferred Birbhum district superintendent of police Nagendra Nath Tripathi and replaced him with another IPS officer Bhaskar Mukherjee.

A notification from the state secretariat 'Nabanna' said that Tripathi has been asked to take charge as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the West Bengal Police Directorate with immediate effect.

The notification states that Mukherjee was the SP of the Sundarbans police district.

It has been said in the notification that he will be replaced by Koteshwar Rao Nalavath, SP (Headquarters) of the Anti-Corruption Branch.

A senior official in the state secretariat termed the small reshuffle of IPS officers as "purely administrative", even though it has been done a day after the killing of two TMC workers.

Ghosh claimed that IPS officers were being removed 'despite pledging allegiance to the ruling party'.

The BJP leader said, "This cosmetic move will not help in locating the large number of crude bombs stored by the ruling party ahead of the panchayat polls." Administrative decision.

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