Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], May 4 : Sucharita Mohanty, the Congress candidate from Puri Lok Sabha constituency, returned her ticket alleging that the party "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."
Earlier on Saturday, in a letter to party general secretary KC Venugopal, Mohanty claimed that her campaign in the Puri constituency "has been hit hard" due to lack of funds adding that her efforts to raise funds through public donation drive also saw little to no success.
"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," Mohanty stated in her letter.
"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.
Mohanty was pitted against BJP's Sambit Patra in the Puri seat. The constituency is currently held by Biju Janata Dal's (BJD) Pinaki Misra. Voting in Puri is scheduled to be held on May 25 in the sixth phase. The counting of votes will be held on June 4.
In the 2019 general elections, Pinaki Misra won the seat by a margin of 11,714 votes defeating BJP's Sambit Patra.