TNI Bureau: In a major jolt to Congress, party candidate for the Puri Lok Sabha constituency Sucharita Mohanty has returned the party ticket alleging a lack of funding from the party.

Mohanty, in a mail to AICC General Secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal mentioned 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. Since I couldn’t raise funds on my own, I knocked at yours and all other doors of our Party’s Central Leadership, urging them to commit the necessary Party funds for an impactful campaign in Puri Parliament Seat, she mentioned.”

“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,”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.