Not satisfied with the resignations of P K Bansal and Ashwani Kumar, the BJP today demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and said that the changes in the CBI status report in the Coalgate submitted to the Supreme Court were made to save Singh's skin.
"The PM is the primary beneficiary of manipulation in the CBI status report by the then Law Minister(Ashwani Kumar), PMO officials and others and he must resign in the backdrop of the resignation of his Law Minister," BJP national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters.
Rudy claimed that there was "clinching evidence" that the former Law Minister and PMO officials among others had "manipulated" the CBI status report which was submitted to the Supreme Court and now that the then Law Minister had quit his post, the PM too should follow suit and go.
Rudy also charged the UPA government with using the resignations of Bansal and Kumar as a 'cushion' to protect the PM from the charges of corruption in the Coalgate and said that the incumbent government's tactics to delay securing resignations of its two ministers was primarily aimed at deflecting the opposition's demand for the PM's resignation.
If the PM continued to stay in his office despite expose of his role in the Coalgate, then the BJP will carry out a nationwide agitation to press for his resignation, he said.
"The BJP workers will not sit at rest till the PM goes," Rudy said.
On the two ministers resignation following sustained pressure by the opposition, he said "it was to happen....It ought to have happened and his party is not surprised at the outcome of the 10 day-long controversy."
The senior BJP leader also predicted that the UPA government will go at once if the PM so decides to resign under mounting pressure from various quarters and claimed that the mid-term polls may take place sooner.
Earlier in the day, the BJP national general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan too had demanded the PM's resignation charging him with being responsible for manipulating the CBI status report about the Coalgate to the SC and said that the latter's resignation was a logical demand after the then Law Minister did so two days ago.
