At present, Trinamool MLA Suvendu Adhikary from neighbouring Contai is teaching Firoza how to conduct business in the House. “She is a fast learner,” said Adhikary.

The March 14 incident still fresh in her mind, Firoza said: “Our family has six bighas of land and we did not want to give it up. That day, my son just went to protest like many others in my village. In the evening, I heard the news that he had been shot and had died.”

An ardent supporter of the Trinamool Congress, this is not Firoza’s first tryst with politics. She had contested the panchayat polls in 1998 and lost.

She was chosen as the Trinamool Congress candidate for Nandigram by-elections after Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee decided to give the ticket to a family member of the victims of the police firing.