Political tension returned in Nandigram, the hotbed of land agitations from 2007 to 2010, after more than a decade on Thursday, with Trinamul and BJP workers scuffling at Birulia Bazar, the site where chief minister Mamata Banerjee was injured on Wednesday evening.

A group of BJP workers led by party’s district vice-president Pralay Pal reached Birulia Bazar on Thursday around 10am to protest Mamata’s claim that she was “attacked” as part of a conspiracy.

Pal said: “The chief minister had been injured when the door of her car (SUV) hit an iron pillar installed to stop large vehicles from plying in the locality. But she is crying conspiracy to play the victim card.”

A preliminary police report on the incident did not cite any such structure, but instead the presence of a concrete pole on the road because of which some men supposedly tripped and fell on the door of the chief minister’s SUV, which flung back to injure Mamata.

While Pal was speaking to his supporters, Trinamul leader Prabhakar Bera reached the venue with around 500 party workers and sloganeered against the BJP, accusing the saffron camp of being involved in the attack on Mamata.

“As the two sides raised slogans against each other, the situation went beyond control and the political rivals started scuffling,” said a villager present at Birulia Bazar.

The police were outnumbered by angry political workers. BJP workers asked the police to come out with the “truth” and their Trinamul counterparts demanded the arrest of those who had slammed the door of Mamata’s SUV.

Sources said agitations and roadblocks by the BJP and Trinamul were reported from at least a dozen points, including Sonachura and Gokulnagar, the site of the death of 14 persons in police firing in 2007.

Reyapara and Tengua also erupted in protests with BJP and Trinamul processions.

Trinamul leaders in Reyapara, where Mamata has rented a house for her stay during the poll campaign, took out a protest rally accusing the BJP of injuring their leader.

“It was a planned move to stop Mamata from campaigning as the BJP knows that they will lose the polls,” said Abu Taher, deputy chief of Nandigram-I panchayat samity. Taher said it was tough to identify the culprits of Wednesday’s “attack”. “Many Trinamul workers have switched sides and are working for BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari. Tough to say who were involved in the attack on Didi.”

Some villagers present at Birulia Bazar on Wednesday, said on Thursday that it was tough to make out what happened as it was dark and crowded.

Sporadic clashes on Thursday reminded violence-wary villagers of Nandigram about their tryst with land protests. Veterans in Nandigram said apart from stray clashes, Nandigram has been peaceful since Mamata took over as chief minister in 2011. Farmer Rabin Pradhan, 61, said they’d seen how violence can destroy a region. “Let votes and not clashes decide who wins the polls.”

Fourteen people had died on March 14, 2007, when police had opened fire on villagers protesting against the acquisition of land by the then Left Front government to set up a chemical hub in Nandigram.