After law minister's resignation, PM should resign: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday stepped up its pressure on the government by demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the resignations of railway minister and law minister, saying the "consequences should follow."

"Now, there is no logic in the prime minister's continuance. Having decided to drop the law minister who was protecting the Prime Minister, then the consequences should follow. The consequence is that the Prime Minister must resign now," BJP leader L K Advani told PTI.

Describing the resignation of Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Law Minister Ashwani Kumar as a step taken "too late", BJP charged the government with "wasting" precious time of Parliament by not agreeing to its demand earlier and allowing it to function.

The opposition party hoped the probe into the railway bribery scam will now go in the right direction and truth will come out once CBI probes freely.

"This is a step taken too late. Had the prime minister and Congress agreed to BJP's demand earlier, they could have saved the precious time of Parliament," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.

"The resignation of the two Ministers shows that our demand for their resignation was justified and the government was unnecessarily adamant. If they had accepted our demand for their resignations earlier, the Parliament session could have gone on," Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj said on Twitter.

Hussain said the resignation has been delayed "deliberately".

He claimed the delay in resignations was because of the "internal feud" within the party.

"BJP now expects that the probe into the railway scam will go in the right direction," he said, adding "the nation wants to know whom was the Law Minister protecting by changing the CBI draft report."

Noting that the resignation has came much late, BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said "the kingdom of loot is now on fire".

Naqvi said "the anger of people has now been converted into hatred and they will teach a lesson to the corrupt" in the coming elections. He hoped that instead of putting an abrupt end to Parliament session, government should have put an end to corruption and those involved in it.