Kolkata: Trinamool Congress on Saturday said the EC was putting pressure on booth-level officers (BLOs) and called on the poll panel to "allow BLOs to work".
Speaking to reporters in Delhi, TMC RS leader Derek O' Brien said, "BLOs are under immense pressure. There are internet issues in many areas. They return home late at night and then upload the data. Who is putting pressure on them? It is the EC. As a responsible political party, Trinamool is doing everything to alert the EC to not rush through the process."
"Trinamool wants a proper SIR. We want it done in the right way. The methodology is wrong. Don't rush this. Take the advice of Mamata Banerjee," O'Brien added.
O'Brien said: "I said this on record at the end of the meeting to the chief election commissioner (CEC): you spoke for 55 minutes, yet you did not answer any of our five questions. If the EC does not want to hold a press conference, issue a press release and accuse us of planting stories in the media, then why not release the transcript of the meeting? Take a week and publish it."
Trinamool MP Pratima Mondal said: "When Derek O'Brien told the CEC (at Friday's meeting) that he had blood on his hands, and Satabdi Roy submitted the list of people who have died due to the SIR process, we saw a hint of a smile on the CEC's face. We asked him to wipe off that smile because we had come to discuss the deaths of people. The CEC has to take responsibility for these deaths."
"BLO Rinku Devi wrote in her suicide note that she had been living a happy life with her family. She wanted to live, but was forced to take her own life. Just like Nita in Ritwik Ghatak's ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara', Rinku, too, wanted to live but was pushed to the brink. The responsibility for these deaths lies not with the Trinamool, but with the EC and the Government of India," Mondal added.