Days before the seat was up for election, the Congress lost its third candidate for the Lok Sabha polls today. Party’s candidate Sucharita Mohanty, withdrew, citing lack of funds.
“It is clear that only a 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,” Ms Puri wrote in a letter to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge.
The former journalist turned politician claimed that Ajoy Kumar, the leader of the Odisha Congress, had ordered her to fight elections with her personal money.
“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.
After putting in her nomination for the Puri Lok Sabha seat, Ms. Mohanty attempted to raise money via crowdsourcing as well. On her social media accounts, she posted a UPI QR code along with other account information, requesting money to run for elections.
She added that although she will always be a devoted employee of Congress, she was forced to take this severe step since she was unable to raise the necessary money on her own and the party did not provide it.
Ms. Mohanty reportedly asked party leaders to switch up the candidates in a few seats because she was dissatisfied with the way the Congress had chosen to represent the Puri in seven Assembly constituencies.
Voting will be held in Puri on May 25. In Surat and Indore, the opposition party has already lost candidates. Following the disqualification of Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, the BJP’s Mukesh Dalal was declared the uncontested winner for the Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22.
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