'PR stunt': BJP on Kejriwal announcing to resign as Delhi CM

BJP also questioned why Kejriwal did not resign when he was arrested in connection with the scam.

New Delhi: Reacting to Arvind Kejriwal’s declaration that he will step down as the Chief Minister of Delhi, the BJP said that it is just a “PR stunt”. Party spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said that the move is aimed at restoring his image.

“This is a PR stunt by Arvind Kejriwal. He has understood that his image among the people of Delhi is not of an honest leader but of a corrupt leader, today the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is known across the country as a corrupt party,” Bhandari said.

BJP state unit president Virendra Sachdeva questioned what took Kejriwal two days to make the declaration after he was given bail. “This so-called ‘two-day leave request’ is nothing but a smart act of transferring assets. Instead of the drama, Kejriwal should have sacked his Cabinet and transparently addressed the corruption allegations against his government,” Sachdeva said.

Senior BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said that there are several examples, such as Lalu Prasad Yadav and Jayalalitha, who quit the CM’s post once arrested. “Kejriwal is yet to resign. Now all of a sudden he has declared that he will resign. Why doesn’t he call a Cabinet meeting and dissolve it immediately by writing to the L-G and hold polls in Delhi,” Trivedi asked.

Bhandari alleged that Kejriwal was trying to replicate the UPA model. “It is clear that he wants to apply the Sonia Gandhi model, where she made Manmohan Singh a dummy Prime Minister and ran the government from behind the scenes,” he alleged.