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.
"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 party ticket for the Puri Lok Sabha constituency herewith," she said in her mail to the AICC. However, Mohanty said she will remain a loyal Congress worker and her leader is Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress leader felt that a people-oriented campaign was not possible due to the paucity of funds. The party is also not responsible for that as the BJP government has crippled the party. A lot of restrictions have been imposed on expenditure and many bank accounts have been frozen, she blamed.
AICC in-charge of Odisha, Ajoy Kumar, said, "Mohanty is saying that no funds have been provided and weak MLA candidates have been allotted tickets. The party has nominated the best nominees for the MLA seats and funds will be provided to a candidate when the nominee launches the campaign and seriously fights at the ground level."
Before coming to the ground, she (Mohanty) alleged that no funds were granted. But, when she was requesting a party ticket, she had said that she would seriously fight the elections, Kumar reminded. The party has already decided to change the Puri LS candidate and a proposal was submitted to the Congress high command. The name of the new candidate will be declared very soon, he informed.
Sucharita has been fielded by the Congress from the Puri Lok Sabha seat against BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra and BJD candidate Arup Patnaik, a former Mumbai Police Commissioner.
