Women Trinamul leaders and supporters reached out to around 300 households in Cooch Behar town on Wednesday, when Holi coincided with International Women’s Day.

The initiative, party leaders said, was taken to inform women about the array of social welfare schemes introduced by the Mamata Banerjee government and check if prospective beneficiaries in households got those benefits.

“On behalf of our party, we visited around 300 houses today (Wednesday), campaigned for ‘Didir Suraksha Kavach’ and checked if families, especially women, got benefits from the 15 schemes. We also disseminated the message of woman empowerment and underlined that Mamata Banerjee is the only woman chief minister in India now,” said Suchismita Debsharma, the Trinamul Mahila Congress chief in Cooch Behar.

The group, comprising around 35-odd women and girls, dressed in colourful attire and carrying colours and flowers, sang songs and recited poems as they visited various localities to talk with women.

“We handed them the Suraksha Kavach pamphlet, a greeting card for International Women’s Day and two packets of herbal abir (colour). There were smiles on the faces of the women we met,” Debsharma said.

Political observers pointed out that Mamata and her party leaders are focusing on women across the state to garner support.

“That Trinamul is keen to secure women’s support is evident with the chief minister’s monthly assistance scheme (Lakshmir Bhandar). The party is keen to build a strong base among women ahead of upcoming rural polls,” said an observer.

A senior Trinamul leader said that women prefer to speak with women leaders and workers on various issues over men.

“We have seen that if an elected male representative visits them, most women keep quiet. They, however, speak for minutes if even an ordinary woman worker of the party visits them. That’s why this women’s outreach will go on across the district,” he said.

In Cooch Behar, where infighting led to Trinamul’s descent and helped the BJP in the last Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, the party is trying to reinvent itself with clear instructions from the state leadership.

“We believe our first step as a party should be to reconnect with people, as our state leadership has said time and again. It is good that Trinamul’s women’s wing started its outreach on Wednesday,” said a Trinamul leader.