Reacting to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation announcement, the BJP on Sunday called it a PR stunt and claimed the Aam Aadmi Party leader wants to apply what it called a “Sonia Gandhi model” to run the government from behind the scenes.

“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 Aam Aadmi Party is known across the country as a corrupt party. Under his PR stunt, he wants to restore his image…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,” BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said.

The BJP leader further claimed that Kejriwal has understood that people of Delhi won’t vote in his name and want to make someone else a scapegoat.

“They have understood today that the Aam Aadmi Party is losing the Delhi elections and the people of Delhi cannot vote in their name, so they want to make someone else a scapegoat…” he added.

Another BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa said that the resignation is not a sacrifice and that Kejriwal was forced to resign because of the Supreme Court order.

“This is not a sacrifice, the Supreme Court has said in the order that he cannot go near the CM’s chair and cannot sign any files. Hence, you don’t have an option, you are forced to resign because of the SC order,” Sirsa stated.

The BJP leader further said that people of Delhi have already given their verdict during the Lok Sabha elections when AAP lost all the seven seats in the national capital.

“The people gave their verdict 3 months ago when you asked ‘jail or bail’, you lost all 7 (Lok Sabha seats in Delhi) and were sent to jail… Now he has asked for a two-day time because he is convincing all MLAs to make his wife the CM… He is forced to leave his chair because he is involved in the liquor scam…,” he said.

Earlier today, Kejriwal announced his resignation as Delhi chief minister in next two days, asserting that he will sit on the CM chair only after people’s verdict.

“I am going to resign from the CM position after two days. I will not sit on the CM chair until the people give their verdict… I will go to every house and street and not sit on the CM chair till I get a verdict from the people…,” Kejriwal said while addressing party leaders and supporters in Delhi.

He also demanded elections to the Delhi legislative assembly be held in November instead of February next year.

“The elections are supposed to be held in February. I demand elections be held in November with Maharashtra elections… Till elections are held, someone else from the party will be the chief minister. In the next 2-3 days, a meeting of the MLAs will be held, where the next CM will be elected,” he added.