Trinamool, the Congress and the CPM on Monday welcomed the Supreme Court’s order to the Election Commission to publish the full list of voters with "logical discrepancies" and accept the Class X board admit card for the SIR, while the BJP appeared subdued.
Bengal’s ruling party, whose leaders had moved court demanding these measures, celebrated what it saw as a victory. Its national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, hailed the "two tight slaps across the cheeks" of those he said wanted to snatch the rights of Bengal’s people.
Publishing the list will bring some transparency to the SIR process and relieve some of those left jittery, and afraid to leave town, by the lack of information on whether or when they might be summoned for a hearing.
The nod to the admit card will relieve those who took or applied to take the Class X boards but never cleared it.
That the parties’ BLAs can assist those called to hearings, on the strength of letters of authorisation, will be a blessing for thousands, particularly the aged, ill and poorly educated.
"We defeated them in the court today, we’ll defeat them in the elections in April," Abhishek said at a Barasat rally.
CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said the apex court order would "save millions of genuine citizens from getting sacrificed at the altar of the BJP's electoral ambitions in Bengal".
Soumya Aich Roy of the Congress said the court had given a rude shock to the poll panel, which "had been conducting acts of medieval barbarism in the name of the SIR under the BJP’s instructions".
The BJP's top leadership went virtually into hiding, with multiple insiders admitting, off the record, that the court order was a "lethal hit" on the party’s Bengal plans.
A visibly downcast state unit chief, Samik Bhattacharya, gave an evasive response, saying: "The Supreme Court has said this... (it’s) up to the Election Commission now to ensure a clean, legitimate electoral roll."