New Delhi, Jan. 1: Arvind Kejriwal, buoyed by Delhi'ites' response to his vehicle-rationing experiment, taunted Narendra Modi today by cheekily turning against him a phrase the Prime Minister had himself used yesterday.

" Pradhan Mantri resolution le ki iss saal Kejriwal ko kaam karne denge (Let the Prime Minister take a resolution that he would let Kejriwal work this year)," the Delhi chief minister told CNN-IBN on New Year's Day.

Modi had yesterday advised the Congress to take a new year's resolution to allow Parliament to function in 2016.

By the time the news channel aired the live interview at 1pm, reports from across Delhi had chronicled the huge response to the chief minister's experiment of odd-even rationing of vehicles that began today.

Basking in the good news, Kejriwal tore into the central government and the man who heads it.

He repeated his allegation that Modi had engineered the mass leave taken by the protesting Delhi and Union Territories Civil Services officials yesterday (with IAS officers taking a half-day's leave in solidarity).

"The central government wanted to sabotage the odd-even scheme and so asked the officers to go on strike just a day before the plan was to be implemented," the chief minister alleged.

He defended the suspensions that had triggered the protest, citing how the two suspended officials had defied the government's orders.

The two officials had refused to sign a file to increase the wages of public prosecutors, saying this needed the assent of lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung, who was in Goa.

"We will not forgive hooliganism. If they do not follow our orders, they will be thrown out of Delhi," Kejriwal said.

He accused the Modi government of trying to obstruct Delhi's development.

"The central government is working only as a speed-breaker... but I want to assure Delhi'ites that despite the Centre's road blocks I will not allow Delhi's work to get stopped," he said.

Even some of Kejriwal's political opponents were compelled to praise the vehicle-rationing drive.

"All odd number cars on road, not much traffic, taking half the time to reach places, I think it's working very well," Congress member and former MP Naveen Jindal tweeted. Kejriwal re-tweeted the post.

He also re-tweeted a picture of BJP parliamentarian and former Mumbai police commissioner Satyapal Singh being caught by traffic police as he travelled in an even-number car on a day only odd-number cars were allowed.

Aam Aadmi Party activists then re-tweeted the picture several times, using it to pillory the BJP.

"Kejriwal used Modi's police (the Delhi police function under the central government) to get his (Modi's) own MP caught and used it to beat the BJP with. This is a political masterstroke," a Congress politician said appreciatively.

Kejriwal also re-tweeted a post by a citizen that summed up the political success of the vehicle-rationing drive.

"First day of the year belongs to Kejriwal. Modi may have parajumped in Pakistan, but all odds evened out in AAP's favour today," the tweet said.