Unidentified gunmen shot dead the vice-president of the Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) Manipur unit, in Imphal (east) district, on Sunday evening.
Chungsei Haokip (60) was with a friend around 7 pm at a tea stall near his New Checkon residence when the assailants shot him from close range.
Haokip was hit on the chest, while his friend, Haokhai Lupheng, hurt his right calf.
Haokip's family rushed him to the district's JN Hospital, but doctors declared him brought dead.
The police said they recovered 9 mm pistol bullets from the spot.
The motive for the killing is not known. Haokip had contested assembly polls twice from Tengnoupal on a Rashtriya Janata Dal ticket before switching to the NCP.
"I don't have any knowledge of who the attackers were as it (the shooting) happened all of a sudden," Lupheng said.