The near-absence of the tribal community at Saturday’s public meeting of youth Trinamul president and MP Abhishek Banerjee in Nagrakata has left district party leaders frowning.

On Saturday, some 25,000 people had turned up at Abhishek’s meeting at the European Club grounds, Nagrakata, but only a fraction was from the tribal community.

“However, we found that the number of tribal people was very few,” said K.K. Kalyani, the Jalpaiguri district Trinamul president on Sunday. “This should not have happened as the meeting was arranged to address the tribals, thousands of whom live in Nagrakata, Malbazar and adjoining areas. The block leaders and elected representatives of these areas have been asked to find out why tribal turnout was low.”

In Jalpaiguri, Nagrakata and Malbazar are two Assembly seats reserved for scheduled tribes. Overall, tribal voters in north Bengal decide the electoral fate of some 15 Assembly seats.

According to Trinamul insiders, the district and the state leadership had chosen Nagrakata as the venue for two reasons. First, they felt the need to show their strength in Nagrakata as Sukra Munda, the local tribal MLA, recently defected from Trinamul to the BJP. Second, they wanted to see the response to Trinamul’s recent initiatives, from the free housing scheme to pay hike for tea workers among the tribal population.

“It is surprising that despite an array of initiatives taken by the state (free housing scheme, tea wage hike), there were only a few hundred tribal people in the audience,” said an insider, adding that the party leadership had hoped that around 80 per cent of the audience would be tribals.

“We did get a good crowd but most were non-tribals. It is natural that our leaders want to find out why most tribals stayed away from the meeting,” the Trinamul leader said.

District leaders after a meeting here on Sunday decided to send party workers to tribal homes. The teams would hand over the report card of the state government in various local languages and tell people what the Mamata Banerjee government did for them.

“We have asked for a report from the elected representatives and block level leaders by next Friday on the issue,” Kalyani said.

Trinamul has on board Rajesh Lakra, a prominent tribal leader, and Sanjay Kujur, a tribal social worker. Also, Joseph Munda, a former tribal MLA of Nagrakata, is the district president of INTTUC.

“It is good that these leaders are with Trinamul, but we need to confirm that tribal people are with us,” said a leader.