The Congress on Saturday announced Jay Narayan Patnaik as its Puri candidate after Sucharita Mohanty stepped back ahead of the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections. Issuing an official statement, the Congress said that party president Mallikarjun Kharge has approved the candidature of Jai Narayan Patnaik (in place of Sucharita Mohanty) as the party candidate from Puri parliamentary constituency for the Lok Sabha elections.
Earlier, Mohanty declined to contest the elections and returned the party ticket alleging a lack of funding from the party. Mohanty, daughter of former Congress MP Brajamohan Mohanty in a mail to AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal claimed that her campaign in the Puri Lok Sabha constituency has been hit hard because the party has denied funding.
"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.
As she was not able to raise funds on her own, the Congress leader had approached all senior leaders including the party's central leadership for funds for an impactful campaign in the Puri Lok Sabha constituency. "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," she said in her mail to the AICC.
However, Mohanty said she will remain a loyal Congress worker and her leader is Rahul Gandhi. Sucharita has been fielded for the Puri LS seat against BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra and BJD candidate Arup Patnaik, a former Mumbai Police Commissioner.
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