"Pressure" From Local TMC "Higher-ups" To Counter BJP Drive, Admits Husband Of One Of Three Women Seen Crawling In Video — Report

The three tribal women in a 27-second video crawling towards the Trinamool Congress (TMC) office in West Bengal's Balurghat town were not members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as claimed in the video.

Rather, they were asked to perform the "Dandavat Parikrama" by the local TMC leadership as a "show of strength," The Indian Express reported.

A local TMC leader, who happens to be the husband of one of the women, admitted to The Indian Express that he was under "pressure" from "local higher-ups" in his party to counter the BJP's move.

Over 100 people, mostly women, joined the local BJP unit at a programme held on 6 April in Badsankair, about 18 km from Balurghat.

Three women crawled from the BJP's office to TMC's district headquarters in Balurghat the next day.

The president of the Trinamool Mahila Congress in Dakshin Dinajpur, Pradipta Chakraborty, said the three women were misled into joining the BJP and were now back in TMC after performing "parikrama" as penance.

The incident was filmed, and sparked outrage. State BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar wrote to President Droupadi Murmu and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.

Pradipta was then fired.

One of the women said, "We are okay now. We were, we are and we will be with Trinamool Congress. We never joined the BJP."

All three refused to say why they performed the "parikrama."

“I was there and I helped organise the programme. It was a Mahila Morcha event where over 100 people joined. I have seen the video. Those three women were not present here,” said Swapan Sil, the BJP’s local booth president.

Sumati Karmakar, the BJP's Mahila Morcha district vice president, denied knowing the three women when asked by The Indian Express.