In a major setback for the Congress, the party’s candidate from Odisha‘s Puri Lok Sabha constituency returned her ticket alleging that the party denied her funding. Sucharita Mohanty said she wrote to party general secretary KC Venugopal but the party did not take any step. As this came to light, former Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam called KC Venugopal the ‘wheeler-dealer’ and said this is ‘today’s poor Congress’.
“The wheeler-dealer who makes financial deals to give posts to Congress members and takes a commission from every minister in state governments for each work scolded the woman candidate (Sucharita Mohanty) so much that she withdrew her candidature,” former Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam who joined the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) said.
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Why did Sucharita Mohanty refuse the ticket?
Sucharita Mohanty was a journalist before entering politics 10 years ago. She said she did not have enough funds for the campaigning. “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,” Sucharita told news agency ANI.
“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 wrote in her letter to KC Venugopal.
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“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.
“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 BJD and vote for 5 Nyays and 25 guarantees of Congress,” Mohanty said.
“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,” Sucharita said asserting her support to the party and Rahul Gandhi.
BJP fielded Sambit Patra from the Puri seat which 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.
