Ahead of the elections in Odisha, Congress suffered a setback as its Puri Lok Sabha candidate, Sucharita Mohanty, withdrew from the contest. She cited the alleged denial of funding by the party as the reason for her decision.
Recently, the Congress faced multiple setbacks in various regions. In Madhya Pradesh's Indore, its candidate Akshaya Kanti Bam withdrew and joined the BJP. In Surat, Gujarat, the party's candidate Nilesh Kumbhani's nomination was rejected, leading to the BJP winning the seat uncontested after other candidates withdrew their nominations.
Mohanty, who came second in the 2014 polls in Puri, wrote an email to Congress general secretary K C Venugopal on Friday night. She expressed her inability to campaign in Puri without financial assistance from the party. The constituency, currently held by Biju Janata Dal's Pinaki Misra, is scheduled to vote in the sixth phase on May 25.
“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,” Mohanty wrote.
Puri is witnessing a high-profile battle in the upcoming elections. The BJP has nominated its national spokesperson Sambit Patra for the second time, while Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's BJD has fielded former Mumbai Police commissioner Arup Patnaik.
In the 2019 elections, the Congress managed to secure only 3.94% of the vote share in Puri, which was a significant decrease from 2014 when Mohanty secured 18.5% of the vote share and finished second.
To overcome a shortage of funds, Mohanty, who is the daughter of freedom fighter and former Congress leader Braja Mohan Mohanty, recently started a "donation drive" to seek financial support from the public for her campaign.
“As you are aware, the BJP government has sought to choke the main Opposition Congress of its own funds during these elections in the most undemocratic design to suppress the Opposition and win the polls. Choked of resources and faced with curbs on bank accounts, the Congress Party is providing ZERO FUNDING to run our poll campaign in Puri Parliamentary Constituency. We are waging a grim battle in Puri against Money Bags and Electoral Bonds scamsters, the ruling BJP and BJD,” she wrote on X on April 29.