A delegation of state and district Trinamul leaders on Wednesday met three of the four women who had to perform an atonement ritual last week in South Dinajpur for briefly joining the BJP.

The move is being seen as a damage-control exercise by the party to placate the tribal population after the incident.

Led by party MLA Debu Tudu, the team, comprising districts leaders Santosh Hansda, Lalita Tigga and Snehalata Hembram reached Chakbaliram-Missionpara village under Tapang block to meet the three women. The fourth was not in the village on Wednesday.

Hembram replaced Pradipta Chakraborty as the new district president of Trinamul’s women’s wing after the atonement ritual came to light.

Tudu and others spoke to the three women in detail.

“All four (women who performed the ritual) are with Trinamul like thousands of other tribals. The BJP is trying to play its political card in the incident. It was an undesirable incident and our party removed the leader concerned (Chakraborty) from her post within 24 hours of getting information. The administration is probing the incident,” said Tudu.

Last Friday, these four women who were Trinamul supporters but joined the BJP the day before, were reportedly “asked” to perform the physically tough dandi atonement ritual on a street in Balurghat when they decided to rejoin their old party. Chakraborty took credit for bringing the women back to Trinamul and handed them party flags after the ritual.

As the matter came to light with the BJP circulating a video clip of the ritual, Trinamul replaced Chakraborty with Hembram, a popular tribal face of the party in the district with a tribal population of around 17 per cent.

This is the first time that a delegation from Trinamul met the women.

Once the team left, the women refused to speak on the issue. “Whatever has happened is in the past. We do not want to speak any further,” said one of them.

Panel seeks report

The National Commission of Scheduled Tribes (NCST) sent a letter on Wednesday to Manoj Malaviya, Bengal’s director general of police, asking him to submit a report on the atonement ritual within three days.

The commission acted on a complaint filed by Sukanta Majumdar, the state BJP chief and Balurghat MP.

Miranda Ingudam, the commission director, wrote that Malaviya should provide facts and information on action taken with regard to the incident.

“The letter says if these details are not given within the next three days, NCST would summon the DGP to appear in person or send a representative,” said a source.

Majumdar was asked to send communication addresses of the four women to the commission.