“As a woman and a political worker, I have my ears to the ground and have harir khobor (literally ‘news from the pot’, or intimate details) of every home in my village,” says 20-something Sonamoni Khatun . As a brazen noonday sun beats down, a meeting is underway at the Trinamool Congress office in Itinda village, near the India-Bangladesh border in North 24 Parganas district. Sonamoni is planning the booth-level campaign strategy with a group of women party workers from neighbouring villages. They discuss Tollywood star and TMC Lok Sabha candidate Nusrat Jahan’s visit.