The Election Commission's extension of the enumeration period till December 11 for the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) prompted attacks by non-BJP parties in Bengal against the allegedly compromised poll panel.
Trinamool spokesperson Arup Chakraborty alleged political interference behind the EC’s move. “This is a cowardly step because the target set by the BJP for the EC has not been met. The EC has proven once again with this directive that they are working for the BJP. But there will be no benefit in it,” he said.
CPM state secretary Md Salim slammd the lack of proper planning. "The EC is stuck in bureaucracy. They have no idea about reality.The fresh notification extending timeline has once again proved that the commission has no plan or ability,” he said.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury argued that delay was inevitable in a complex state like Bengal. “The EC should have understood in advance that it was not possible to conduct the SIR in such a short time in a complex state like Bengal, both geographically and demographically. We said this from the start. The EC did not understand... they are paper tigers,” he said.
The BJP leadership pounced in to defend the EC. Junior Union minister Sukanta Majumdar said: “The Election Commission has done what it understood well. They felt the time limit for SIR needed to be extended, so they have done it. We can't have any objection. We said that if necessary, the time limit should be extended further. If required, the SIR should be conducted after two years and elections should be held after that."
“If such a situation arises, the state should be under President’s rule after Mamata Banerjee’s government completes its term. Once the SIR process is completed, the state should remain under President’s Rule for the elections. We have no objection," he said.
Some BLO organisations celebrated the extension of the deadline as a victory for their agitation over workload and deadlines.