Bhubaneswar: After Congress candidate for Puri Lok Sabha seat Sucharita Mohanty returned her ticket alleging 'no party funding' for elections, the party's state in-charge Ajoy Kumar cleared the air questioning the efficiency of the candidate.

Speaking to reporters, Kumar said, "Sucharita Mohanty had made hard efforts for the ticket. The candidate might have thought about arranging funds before she decided to enter the electoral process."

Refuting allegations leveled by the Congress MP candidate, he said, "Usually, the party funds a candidate when he/she enters the ground for full-fledged campaign. This is the beginning of the campaign. Before we offered her a ticket, she claimed that she will fight the polls with full strength. Had we asked her how she would fight the polls? If a candidate is complaining about the funding, I will make no comment on that."

On allegation about projecting weak candidates by the party for several Assembly seats under Puri Lok Sabha Constituency, he said, "We have fielded best candidates after a thorough scrutiny."

He said that the party had a plan to change the candidate for Puri Lok Sabha seat and now she came up with 'no funding' allegations.

"We were aware of the situation in Puri, therefore we made a request to the AICC yesterday recommending change of candidate for Puri Lok Sabha seat in Odisha. It will be announced today," Kumar told reporters.

Earlier in the morning, Congress Lok Sabha candidate Sucharita Mohanty informed the media that she has returned her ticket citing 'no funding' by the party for election campaigns as the reason.

"I cannot fight the elections without funds," Sucharita said.

"The party is not providing me fund for election campaigns. Besides, the party has fielded weak candidates in seven Assembly seats under my parliamentary constituency. I urged the party to change four Assembly candidates, however, my request went unheard. When I asked for funds, the party suggested me to fight election on my own. At a time when the ruling party is trying to win with vulgar display of money, I cannot fight the polls without funds. This is not feasible to carry out election campaigns without party funding," she said.