Ahead of the Panchayat elections, unidentified persons on Monday shot dead an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) worker near Patti in Tarn Taran district in broad daylight, police said.

There are 13,229 gram panchayats in the state for which elections will be held on October 15. The last date for withdrawal of nominations ended on Monday. Votes will be counted on the same day at the polling station itself.

The deceased has been identified as Rajwinder Singh, 38, son of Gurdial Singh, a resident of Talwandi Mohar Singh village. He was active in village politics and played a key role in the unanimous election of Raj Kaur as village sarpanch, police added.

As per reports, after Raj Kaur was elected unopposed, Rajwinder, along with aides, was returning from the BDPO office at Patti when three unknown bike-borne persons stopped his car near a church in Thakarpura village on Patti-Khemkaran road and started firing indiscriminately.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. Two persons accompanying him were also injured in the incident.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Gaurav Toora said: “He (Rajwinder) was an AAP worker and belonged to the group which proposed the name of Raj Kaur for the post of sarpanch. We have deputed our teams to trace the killers. Statements are being recorded to lodge an FIR in this case”.

Condemning the murder, Punjab cabinet minister and Patti MLA Laljit Singh Bhullar said, “Our party’s leader at Talwandi Mohar Singh village has been murdered mercilessly. I have directed the police and administration to take stringent action against the killers. No one will be spared. The killers will be behind bars soon.”

In a social media post a gangster Prabh Dasuwal has taken the responsibility of the murder. As per the post, the gangster said he took revenge of a murder one of his aide by killing Rajwinder. The police said they are investigating the post.