Immediately after the Supreme Court’s verdict canceling all 122 spectrum licences granted after January 2008, the Bhartiya Janata Party turned the heat on the UPA government demanding the immediate resignation of the home minister P Chidambaram.

The decision has come as a massive blow to the government which in the recent past had gone all out to defend him in the 2G spectrum allocation case.

“He (Chidambaram) is fully involved in the entire scam and he has two days’ reprieve. But issue of probity in public life demands that either Chidambaram puts in his papers on his own, or if he refuses to do so, the Prime Minister must recommend to the President to sack him from the government with immediate effect,” BJP leader Balbir Punj said in New Delhi on Thursday.

Yesterday the senior BJP leader Murali Manohar Joshi had also demanded the resignation of Chidambaram for his alleged role in the scam.

“The first step that the Prime Minister should now take is to sack Chidambaram. Any delay on the Prime Minister’s part will only lower his own credibility,” senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi said.

BJP however said that he could return to the cabinet if he is given a clean by the trial court.