Puri: Congress candidate for Puri Lok Sabha seat, Sucharita Mohanty has returned party ticket due to lack of funding from the party.
Sucharita, daughter of former Congress MP Brajamohan Mohanty, has written a mail to AICC General Secretary (organization) K C Venugopal.
Shrimati Mohanty said her campaign in the Puri parliamentary constituency has been hit hard because the party has denied funding. AICC Odisha in-charge Ajoy Kumar categorically asked her to fight from her own resources.
Sucharita has been fielded for the Puri LS seat against BJP National Spokesperson Sambit Patra and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik (BJD).
“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 mentioned.
As she wasn’t able to raise funds on her own, the Congress leader has approached all senior leaders including the party’s central leadership for party funds for an impactful campaign in the Puri LS segment.
“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,” she said in her memo to AICC.
“I was denied funds from the party. In Assembly segments, weak candidates were given tickets. BJP and BJD are sitting on mountains of money. It was difficult. Vulgar displays of wealth are everywhere,” she said.
The Congress leader said she wanted a people-oriented campaign but that was also not possible with the lack of funds. Party is also not responsible for that. The BJP Government has crippled the party. There are a lot of curbs on expenditure and many of the bank accounts have been frozen, she added.
However, Shrimati Mohanty said she will remain as a loyal Congress worker and her leader is Rahul Gandhi.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, she had lost to Pinaki Mishra of the state’s Governing Biju Janata Dal (BJD). Shri Mishra won the polls 5,23,161 votes, while Mohanty trailed with 2,89,800 votes.
