Bhubaneswar: The Puri Lok Sabha candidate for the Congress, Sucharita Mohanty, withdrew her ticket. Mohanty claims that the party had ‘denied her funding’. Speaking to ANI on her letter withdrawing the candidature, the Congress leader said, “I have returned the ticket because the party was not able to fund me. Another reason is that in some of the seats in seven Assembly segments, winnable candidates have not been given the ticket. Instead, some weak candidates got the ticket. I couldn’t contest like this.”
Mohanty stated earlier on Saturday that her campaign in the Puri constituency ‘has been hit hard’ by a lack of funding. She also stated that her attempts to generate money through a public contribution drive saw little to no results.
In order to seek help from the party leadership, Mohanty wrote a letter that was addressed to the party general secretary, KC Venugopal. “Our campaign in the Puri Parliamentary constituency has been hit hard because the party has denied me funding. AICC Odisha in-charge Ajoy Kumar ji categorically asked me to fend for myself. I was a salaried professional journalist who entered electoral politics 10 years ago. I have given all I have into my campaign in Puri.”
“I tried a public donation drive to support my campaign for progressive politics without much success so far. I also tried to cut down the projected campaign spending to the minimum,” she added. She further said that the party’s central leadership did not tend to her several requests to provide funds.
“Since I couldn’t raise funds on my own, I knocked at your and all other doors of our party’s central leadership urging them to commit the necessary party funds for an impactful campaign in Puri Parliament seat. Like in 2014, I found a groundswell of popular support behind our party and my candidature. In this 2024 Satta Vs Janata election, the people are all set to throw out the two corrupt and scamsters ruling parties, BJP and BJP and vote for 5 Nyays and 25 guarantees of Congress,” Mohanty said. Mohanty further asserted to remain a “loyal soldier of Congress and leader Rahul Gandhi”.
“It is clear that only fund crunch is holding us back from a winning campaign in Puri. I regret that without party funding, it won’t be possible to carry out the campaign in Puri. I, therefore, return the INC ticket for the Puri parliamentary constituency herewith,” the Congress leader said.
“I am a Congresswoman with core Congress values in my DNA. I shall remain a loyal soldier of Congress and my leader Jananayak Rahul Gandhi ji,” she added.
In the Puri seat, Mohanty was contesting against Sambit Patra of the BJP. Pinaki Misra, a member of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), presently holds the constituency. Sixth phase voting in Puri is set to take place on May 25. On June 4, there will be a vote count. Pinaki Misra defeated Sambit Patra of the BJP by a margin of 11,714 votes in the general elections of 2019.