Orissa BJP: Swain to quit

He ducked the question whether he was joining the Biju Janata Dal as is being speculated. Party leaders,including state chief Suresh Pujari,said they are trying to make him stay. Lets see what happens tomorrow. Our leaders in Delhi are in touch with him, said Pujari. If Swain leaves the BJP to join the BJD,the saffron party will lose one of its veterans in coastal Orissa.

Incidentally,Swain was even being considered as the BJPs Chief Ministerial candidate after the party broke up with the BJD but the idea was shelved.

Swains decision comes when the party is all set to elect a new state president and is trying hard to bring a semblance of order in the ranks,humiliated after the 2009 Lok Sabha and Assembly defeats and wracked by a bitter factional war.

Early this month,Swain was all set to quit with some associates but was persuaded to stay back after the intervention of central leader Chandan Mitra. After meeting Mitra,Swain had cryptically said he was in the party for the time being.

Swain,56,was one of the top speakers of the party in the last Lok Sabha but with his loss from Balasore in 2009,a section of the party backed by the RSS has steadily been working to sideline him.