Bhubaneswar:
The Congress on Saturday evening named Jay Narayan Patnaik as its candidate for the Puri Lok Sabha seat in Odisha after Sucharita Mohanty withdrew from the race claiming that the party had denied her campaign funds.
In a statement issued by Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, the party said its president Mallikarjun Kharge approved Mr Patnaik's candidature in place of Ms Mohanty.
Sucharita Mohanty, the daughter of former Congress MP Brajamohan Mohanty, alleged in an email to Mr Venugopal on Friday that her campaign was badly hit as the party denied her funding.
She alleged that Congress state in-charge Ajoy Kumar had “categorically” asked her to fight on her own resources.
“I was a paid professional journalist who entered electoral politics ten years ago. I have given everything I have to my campaign in Puri. I've been trying to organize a public donation drive to support my campaign for progressive politics, but without much success so far. I have also tried to reduce planned campaign expenditure to a minimum,” she said.
Ms Mohanty said she had approached all senior leaders of the party for money.
“It is clear that only the funding crisis is holding us back from delivering a winning campaign in Puri. I regret that without party funding it will not be possible to carry out the campaign in Puri. I, therefore, hereby return the party ticket for the Puri Lok Sabha constituency,” she said in her email.
Ms Mohanty said she will remain a loyal Congress worker.
She later told reporters that weak candidates in Congress segments under the Puri Lok Sabha constituency were given tickets by the Congress.
“BJP and BJD are sitting on mountains of money. Vulgar displays of wealth are everywhere. It was difficult for me to fight the elections,” she said.
Responding to her claims, Mr. Kumar said, “Funds will be provided to a candidate when the candidate launches the campaign and fights seriously on the ground.”
The BJP has fielded its national spokesperson Sambit Patra in Puri, while the BJD candidate is ex-IPS Arup Patnaik, a former Mumbai Police Commissioner.
Puri will vote on May 25.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)