New Delhi: The fledgling Congress in Odisha suffered a setback after Sucharita Mohanty, the party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Puri, returned her ticket two days before the final date for filing of nominations was to end, citing the alleged denial of funding by the party.
Mohanty is the third Congress candidate after Indore’s Akshay Kanti Bam and Surat’s Nilesh Kumbhani to withdraw her candidature before filing her nomination.
With Mohanty withdrawing, the contest in Puri will be a bipolar one between Bharatiya Janata Party’s Sambit Patra and Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) Arup Patnaik, former Mumbai police commissioner. Odisha is gearing up for simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha in four phases starting 13 May.
A former journalist, Mohanty is the daughter of Brajamohan Mohanty, Odisha Congress leader and former MP from Puri. She contested from the Puri Lok Sabha seat in 2014 as well but lost by 2.33 lakh votes to BJD’s Pinaki Misra.
Odisha Congress sources told ThePrint that Mohanty mailed a letter to All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal Friday night where she alleged that her campaigning in the Puri Lok Sabha seat was getting affected because of lack of funds.
“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,” Mohanty said in her e-mail to Venugopal, which ThePrint has seen.
In her mail, Mohanty also alleged that AICC Odisha in-charge Dr Ajoy Kumar had asked her to fend for herself.
“Our campaign in the Puri parliamentary constituency has been hit hard because the party has denied me funding. AICC Odisha in-charge Dr 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. 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.
In her e-mail, Mohanty added that since she could not raise funds on her own, she knocked at all doors of the party’s central leadership, including Venugopal’s, urging them to commit the necessary party funds for an impactful campaign in the Puri parliamentary seat. She said that like in 2014, there is a groundswell of popular support behind the Congress and her candidature.
To tide over the fund crunch, Mohanty also launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds but without much success.
Talking to ThePrint, Mohanty said that she did not return the ticket to join another party.
“I am a loyal and disciplined soldier of the Congress and will continue to serve the party. My intention is not to join any other party. I have returned the ticket because I do not have any money left and I realised that it was difficult to have an impactful campaign when your opponents are making such a vulgar display of money during their campaigning,” she said.
Mohanty added that she thought of returning the ticket two days before the final date for filing nominations so that the party could then field somebody else who has the financial capability to contest elections. “Why waste the ticket?” she remarked.
Besides the fund crunch, Mohanty said she was also peeved by the party‘s decision to field ‘weak candidates’ from some of the seven assembly segments under the Puri Lok Sabha constituency. “This will not only impact the party’s performance in the assembly segments but parliamentary elections also. It is difficult to fight like this,” she said.
ThePrint also reached AICC Odisha in-charge Ajoy Kumar over the phone but he did not respond.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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