Sucharita Mohanty, a former journalist and Congress candidate for the prestigious Puri Lok Sabha constituency, has withdrawn her candidature due to her party’s inability to fund her campaign. She has also expressed concerns about her own financial limitations in competing against formidable opponents from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
Mohanty stated that she has withdrawn her candidature as she is unable to mobilize resources for her campaign, as the Congress has refused to provide funding. Additionally, there has been no funding for seven candidates contesting assembly elections in the Puri Lok Sabha jurisdiction.
Mohanty criticized the Congress for its financial woes, which she believes are a result of the Narendra Modi government’s efforts to paralyze the main opposition party. She alleges that the BJP government’s strategy is to suppress the opposition and win elections unethically.
Mohanty also expressed dissatisfaction with the selection of candidates in four out of seven Assembly constituencies under the Puri Lok Sabha seat. She believes that less-deserving candidates have been given Congress tickets in these segments and had raised this issue with the party leadership. She was assured that these candidates would be replaced with more winnable ones, but this did not materialize.
Mohanty is critical of the ‘vulgar display’ of financial muscle power by the BJP and BJD candidates in the Puri Lok Sabha seat. She specifically mentioned BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra and former Mumbai Police Commissioner and BJD leader Arup Patnaik, who have filed nominations for the Puri seat. She alleges that both the BJP and BJD candidates have already spent taxpayers’ money on campaigning their parties before the model code of conduct came into force.
When asked about the minimum fund she required for her campaign, Mohanty stated that she needed ₹5 lakh to distribute ‘Nyaya’ cards, containing five pledges of the party, among all families. She also emphasized the need for campaign materials and transportation costs to reach every corner of the Assembly seat.
Mohanty attempted to mobilize funds through crowd-funding but failed to receive an adequate response. She expressed her desire to run a simple campaign without resorting to flaunting financial muscle and emphasized her belief in value-based politics.
Sucharita Mohanty, the third daughter of former Union Minister late Brajamohan Mohanty, is a former journalist who contested the 2014 election on a Congress ticket and came second. She polled 45,000 votes higher than her BJP rival. In 2019, she was denied a ticket, while another journalist, Satya Prakash Nayak, was fielded by the Congress. While the BJP narrowly lost the election in 2019, the Congress’ vote share plunged drastically from 25% to 3.94% from 2014 to 2019.
