Bhubaneswar, Dec 22 (IANS) Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Orissa and former Lok Sabha MP M.A. Kharavela Swain Tuesday resigned from the party protesting alleged interference by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in party affairs.
The bureaucrat-turned-politician who was a member of the 12th, 13th and 14th Lok Sabha, announced the end of his 20-year-long relationship with the BJP at a press conference here.

“The RSS is physically controlling the Bharatiya Janata Party. There is no character left with the RSS-deputed leaders of the BJP,” Swain said, adding that he had no other option left but to quit.

Swain, 56, alleged that the RSS leadership in the state was promoting those people in his parliamentary constituency of Balasore who had once attacked his house.

“They are also controlling the party affairs in Delhi,” Swain, who is known for his firebrand oratory skills, said.

The leader who is considered as very close to BJP veteran L.K. Advani, said he will not join any other party and form his own regional party soon.

Swain was vice president of the state BJP from 1993 to 2000 and president of the youth wing of the party from 1991-1993.

He was deputy chief whip of the BJP parliamentary party in Lok Sabha from 2004-2009.

Swain was currently the national executive member of BJP since the past over five years. He was in charge of the party affairs in West Bengal and Tripura since 2005.

Describing the allegations of Swain against the RSS as baseless, Ashok Das, a senior RSS leader in Orissa, said: “The RSS never interferes in the affairs of BJP. It is a false allegation.”