The Congress candidate for Odisha's Puri Lok Sabha seat, Sucharita Mohanty, has declined to contest the Lok Sabha election, citing a lack of funds.
In her communication to Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal, Sucharita stated, "A fund crunch is hindering our (Congress) ability to run an effective campaign in Puri...Without party funding, it will not be possible to conduct the campaign, therefore, I am returning the ticket."
In the email to KC Venugopal, a screenshot of which has surfaced on social media, Sucharita also mentioned that the state party in-charge had advised her to manage on her own.
"I tried a public donation drive to support my campaign for pregressive politics without much success so far. I also tried to cut down the projected campaign sending to minimum...I knocked at your and all other doors of our Party's Central Leadership, urging them to commit the necessary Party fund for an impctful campaign in Puri seat."
On April 29, Sucharita posted on social media requesting donations for her campaign.
Blaming the BJP-led Centre for choking the Congress party's funds during elections, Sucharita stated, "With curbs on bank accounts, the Congress Party is providing ZERO FUNDING to run our poll campaign in Puri."
In her post, appealing to people to donate, she said,"Faced with the ugly prospects that a fund shortage alone could stand between us and the victory in Puri against the Money Bags, I am sending out this SoS APPEAL to you. "
The Congress party had nominated Sucharita Mohanty to contest from the Puri Lok Sabha seat against the BJP's Sambit Patra. Meanwhile, the BJD has announced retired IPS officer Arup Patnaik as its candidate from the Puri seat.
In 2019, BJD's Pinaki Mishra defeated the BJP candidate and party's spokesperson Sambit Party in a close contest with a margin of over 11,000 votes.
Puri is one of the 6 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha that will go for polling in the 6th phase of general elections on May 25. The last date for filing nominations for the sixth phase of elections is on May 6.
