Bhubaneswar:Congress' Puri Lok Sabha candidate Sucharita Mohanty returned ticket over lack of funds. She has returned the party ticket stating that her campaign in the Puri Parliamentary constituency has been hit hard as the party has denied funds. Following this, the party named Jay Narayan Patnaik as its Lok Sabha candidate from Puri on the same day.
Sucharita Mohanty says, ''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 allocated the tickets. Instead, some weak candidates secured the tickets. So, I have decided not to contest the polls.''
Sucharita Mohanty, daughter of former Congress MP Brajamohan Mohanty, in a mail to AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal on Friday claimed that her campaign in the Puri Lok Sabha constituency has been hit hard because the party has denied funding.
She said, ''Our campaign in the Puri Parliamentary constituency has been hit hard because the party has denied me funding. AICC Odisha In-Charge Ajoy Kumar categorically told me to fight the election from her resources.'' "I was a journalist, who forayed into 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, but in vain," she said.
As she was not able to raise funds on her own, the Congress leader had approached all senior leaders including the party's central leadership for funds for an impactful campaign in the Puri Lok Sabha constituency.