Relative normality was restored on Friday to the key East Midnapore battleground of Nandigram, where Mamata Banerjee took on her former protégé Suvendu Adhikari, but the face-off at Boyal on Thursday remained a talking point with apprehensions about what would happen after counting of votes on May 2.

Across the length and breadth of the Assembly constituency — Sonachura to Kendemari, Kalicharanpur to Bhuta More, Haripur to Garchakraberia — return to everyday life seemed imminent as fleet after fleet of buses ferrying central forces personnel left Nandigram.

Since the Boyal incident on Thursday afternoon, no major law and order problem was reported from any part of the constituency.

The wheelchair-bound chief minister was stranded at the Boyal booth — located between two bitterly divided localities of Trinamul and BJP supporters, belonging to two different communities — for nearly two hours on Thursday. Over those two tense hours, the chest-thumping religio-political assertions, with police and journalists outside the booth caught in the middle, appeared quite capable of flaring up into a full-fledged communal riot.

Since Friday morning, both Mamata and her poll rival left Nandigram to campaign for their respective parties for the next phases of the elections.

“We will be able to breathe easy for a bit now, with all the phaltu hungama (needless turmoil) of the campaign and the elections finally getting over… at least till the results,” said a sexagenarian barbershop owner belonging to the majority community, who — despite the desperate attempts at communal polarisation by the saffron camp to secure electoral gains — remains a firm Mamata loyalist.

The Boyal Maktab Primary School on Friday, a day after Mamata Banerjee was stranded at the booth there during the voting. Pradip Sanyal

“But the shocker of Boyal gave many of us sleepless nights, over what the future holds for the people of Nandigram. We had many, many problems, but communal disharmony was never one of them,” he added.

Boyal wore a deserted look on Friday afternoon.

The one or two people who could be seen on its narrow lanes were hesitant to talk about what happened there the day before.

“I am still too shaken…. I am 76 now. I have not seen such a political divide along communal lines in Nandigram in my life. I haven’t been able to eat or sleep since last afternoon,” said a Boyal resident belonging to the majority community, requesting anonymity.

The frontyard of his modest home, where he was trapped with his wife and several grandchildren, was one of the places where the Trinamul-backed mob — from the minority community — had gathered in response to a similar gathering across a field by a BJP-backed mob from the majority community.

“I am from the majority community. I will support Didi (Mamata) till my last breath. I used to think the BJP’s efforts to polarise have largely been in vain. After what I saw in my on neighbourhood yesterday (Thursday), I am not so sure of anything anymore,” he added.

A shout away from his residence lies the Boyal Maktab Primary School, which housed the booth the chief minister had gone to on Thursday afternoon in response to complaints of electoral malpractice.

The much larger police contingent, pressed into service by the poll panel, which had pacified the two mobs and rescued the chief minister, left after the voting process ended in the evening.

“We were really scared for the night because the peace ensured by the heavy presence of the central forces is bound to be brittle and anything could happen after their departure. But thankfully, nothing has happened yet…. There have been rumours, some nasty, some absurd. But nothing has happened yet,” said a middle-aged homemaker from the minority community.

“The real worry now is over what happens exactly a month later (counting takes place on May 2). Irrespective of which side emerges victorious, renewed tension — with actual violence — cannot be ruled out,” she added.

Tension on polling day in Nandigram continues to keep the district police on tenterhooks as additional three companies of central forces were deployed in the constituency on Friday to avert any untoward incident.

“To ensure that there is no fresh tension in the sensitive areas of Nandigram, including Boyal, police have been asked to keep a vigil while three companies of central forces have been deployed on Friday. The police will not spare troublemakers,” said superintendent of police, East Midnapore, Sunil Kumar Yadav.