Police said the property dealer was shot dead by people on a motorbike in front of a tehsil office (File)

A property dealer was shot dead by unidentified assailants in front of a tehsil office in Varanasi on Monday, prompting the Samajwadi Party and the Congress to slam the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh over the law-and-order situation in the state.

In a tweet in Hindi, Congress general secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi Vadra referred to the incident to hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state.

"Criminals killed a person in Varanasi today by shooting him six times. The BJP government has put the entire state machinery to suppress voices. For criminals, there are air-conditioned rooms and the freedom to commit crime. The BJP government is a failure," she said.

The SP also took potshots at the Yogi Adityanath government, saying the incident in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency just after the chief minister's visit showed that the state was witnessing a "Jungle Raj".

"The killing of a person inside a tehsil office is the result of the fearlessness of criminals. The killing in the prime minister''s constituency shows that there is a Jungle Raj in 'hatya pradesh'," the party said in a tweet on its official Twitter handle.

Police said the property dealer was shot dead by people on a motorbike in front of a tehsil office early on Monday.

Nitesh Singh (45) alias Babloo, a resident of Sarnath, was attacked while he was getting into his SUV. The tehsil office was located within the Cantonment police station limits, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Anand Kulkarni said.

The attackers fled after firing six bullets at Nitesh Singh, he added.

Senior officials rushed to the spot with a heavy police force after the incident.

The police were scanning the CCTV footage obtained from the area and efforts were on to arrest the assailants, the SSP said.