Nandigram, May 30: At 11 am, Susovan Patra’s mobile rang in Sonachura village. He pulled it out of his shirt pocket with a sort of nervous anticipation and whooped in joy seconds later.

“We’ve got Panskura,” he screamed.

Susovan, a farmer, owns about 5 acres. “We could do it (beat the CPM) because of our resistance to the land acquisition planned by the CPM-led government,” he said.

A cluster of people had formed around the Bhoomi Uch-chhed Pratirodh Committee member by then.

In no time, phones appeared in the hands of many other villagers, who were calling up acquaintances across Nandigram to relay the “good news”.

Panskura is 75 km from Nandigram, but it was difficult to tell as about 1,000 villagers smeared each other with green abir on the roads at Hajrakata, Maheshpur, Sonachura, Gokulnagar, Gangra, Dinabandhupur and Osmanchak.

There were at least a dozen victory processions in the area and over 5,000 people snaked through roads bursting firecrackers. “Nandigram jitchhey, jitbey (Nandigram will always win),” they shouted.

Scared by the intensity of the celebrations, hundreds of CPM supporters rushed out of refugee camps and tried to figure out what was happening in the villages they had left behind months ago.

Tension mounted in the party-run shelters at Sherkhanchowk and Bhangabera in Khejuri, teeming with over 1,000 homeless CPM supporters.

Police rushed to defuse the tension. The personnel posted at Tekhali and Bhangabera bridges — between Nandigram and Khejuri — got in touch with Nandigram police station.

“What were those explosions we could hear — were they crackers or bombs?” a police officer asked his colleague.

They were crackers. At least that is what the Nandigram police, who have not entered the villages in months, said.

East Midnapore police chief Anil Srinivas said those living in the camps thought the Pratirodh Committee members had launched a fresh attack. “We enquired. They were bursting crackers. We explained the situation to those in the camps and assured them that we were monitoring the events,” he added.

Joydeb Paik, a CPM local committee member from Sonachura staying at the camp, said: “They are celebrating our defeat.”

“The Nandigram impact will also be felt in next year’s panchayat polls,” Trinamul leader Abu Taher said.