Sucharita Mohanty was slated to contest against BJP’s Sambit Patra, a national spokesperson, and BJD’s Arup Patnaik, a former Mumbai Police Commissioner, for the Puri Lok Sabha seat.
Sucharita Mohanty, the Congress’ candidate for the Puri Lok Sabha seat in Odisha, has made the decision to return her ticket, highlighting the issue of insufficient campaign funds from the party. Mohanty said despite her best efforts, including a public donation drive and cost-cutting measures, her struggles with financial constraints, leading to an inability to conduct any campaign.
Recently Mohanty launched a crowdfunding campaign, seeking donations to contest the election. She had shared a UPI QR code on her social media handles, asking for money. “Since I could not raise funds on my own, I appealed to the party to provide me funds. When my efforts didn’t pay off, I declined to contest,” Mohanty said.
In a letter addressed to Congress general secretary KC Venugopal on May 3, Mohanty emphasized that the lack of funding from the party significantly impacted her campaign in Puri. She mentioned that the state’s Congress chief, Ajoy Kumar, instructed her to manage her campaign expenses independently. “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.
“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.
During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Mohanty faced defeat against Pinaki Mishra of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD). Mishra secured 5,23,161 votes, surpassing Mohanty, who garnered 2,89,800 votes.
Sucharita Mohanty was slated to contest against BJP’s Sambit Patra, a national spokesperson, and BJD’s Arup Patnaik, a former Mumbai Police Commissioner, for the Puri LS seat.
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