While it left the government elated, the Trinamool Congress, at the behest of whose chief Mamata Banerjee the team was visiting, found it hard to contain its disappointment.

The team, led by DRS Chaudhary, Additional Secretary, Union Ministry of Home Affairs, met the state government officials, DMs and Superintendents of Police of nine districts before leaving for Delhi.

“I think they are happy with our briefings,” a beaming Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen said in the evening. None of the three team officials spoke to the media.

State chief secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti had said on Tuesday that the team had not come to make an assessment of the law and order situation but to offer assistance. But at the meeting with Superintendents of Police and District Magistrates, they inquired about the situation, the number of killings, all related to law and order.

“Most of the SPs said the number of clashes has increased after the Lok Sabha elections,” an official said. But Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen refused to call it an exercise in assessment of law and order. “You call it whatever you like,” Sen told reporters.

Despite the request of the Trinamool Congress, at whose behest they came to the state, the team visited none of hot spots — including Lalgarh, Khanakul, Arambagh and Nandigram — which saw a number of deaths in political clashes.

But strangely, the Trinamool Congress refused to comment on this. “We will make a comment after consulting Didi,” said Mukul Roy, general secretary of the party. A delegation of the party led by Roy had met the officials at the guesthouse they stayed in and handed a memorandum to them.

According to a government official, the team did not express any desire to go anywhere either.

“Had they told us, we had to arrange for their trip. But we did not receive any request,” he said.

Home Secretary Sen said the state government used the meeting to apply for more funds from the Centre. “They told us that they would like to meet the officials of nine districts affected by violence and we have arranged for that,” he said. “They also said they were willing to provide technology for better information gathering in Maoist-affected places. We placed our demands that we should be given more funds.”