Kolkata: The Election Commission came under fire from most political parties in Bengal, including BJP, after it announced its decision to defer the deadline for the submission of enumeration forms and publication of the draft voter lists by a week.
Trinamool, which claimed "partial victory" against EC, was joined by Congress and CPM in slamming the poll panel's "incompetence".
The non-BJP parties, however, said a week's extension of the deadline to publish the draft lists, post-SIR, was not enough to finish the pending work.
The extension comes amid concerns that EC had set an "unrealistic" deadline for such a humongous exercise and following 40 deaths in Bengal that family members of the deceased have linked to SIR-related stress.
Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya attacked chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar for the third day straight on Sunday.
Trinamool Congress, which has moved the Supreme Court challenging the way the SIR is being conducted in Bengal, said EC's decision proved that it had been wrong in assigning just a month for the distribution, collection and uploading of enumeration forms.
"We have been pointing out that such a large-scale exercise needs more time. But EC was adamant to complete it in a month. That resulted in 40 deaths till date. They should apologise to the public for the mistake," said Bengal finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.
"We were never against an SIR. But if the 2002 Bengal SIR was done in two years, why is this being done in two months? By deferring the deadline, EC has admitted that we were right. This hurried, unplanned exercise is taking an enormous toll on the BLOs (booth level officers) and the voters," Bhattacharya said.
Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya, who had been critical over the past two days of the way EC was conducting the SIR, said on Sunday, "Gyanesh Kumar should come out of New Delhi and visit Bengal with his team. He should go to districts like Murshidabad, Malda and Birbhum to see how BLOs are working under pressure."
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari went a step ahead, saying the party "will not spare EC if the final list contains names of dead voters, duplicate names or illegal immigrants". "Zone observers were appointed to cleanse the electoral rolls. I hope they will not face any untoward situation," he said.
Pradesh Congress president Subhankar Majumdar, who too has moved SC against the SIR, said, "The commission needs to extend the deadline by at least a month."
CPM state secretary Md Salim said an "ill-prepared EC finally realized its mistake".
"The damage has already been done and that cannot be repaired or restored. Had EC deleted the names of dead voters during the mapping, BLOs would have been relieved to a large extent. Meanwhile, both BJP and Trinamool continued to scare people," Salim said.
BJP neta and junior Union minister Sukanta Majumdar said the claim of partial victory falls flat as the timeline has only been extended by a week. "TMC had demanded that the exercise continue for two years. But EC has given a week's extension."
State SUCI (Communist) secretary Chandidas Bhattacharya issued a statement saying, "The decision to extend the SIR deadline by one week proves once again how unprepared and unplanned the EC was when it started this work. Due to lack of planning, so many BLOs have lost their lives or committed suicide. Furthermore, the lives of so many common people were lost due to the politically motivated SIR."