New Delhi, May 5 -- The Congress has named Jay Narayan Patnaik as its candidate for the Puri Lok Sabha seat in Odisha after Sucharita Mohanty pulled out of the race on Saturday, claiming that the party denied her funds for her campaign.In a statement issued by Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, the party said its president Mallikarjun Kharge approved the candidature of Patnaik in place of Mohanty.

Sucharita Mohanty, the daughter of former Congress MP Brajamohan Mohanty, in a mail to Venugopal on Friday claimed that her campaign was hit hard because the party denied her funding.Mohanty, who quit journalism to join politics in 2014, alleged that Congress in-charge of the state Ajoy Kumar "categorically" asked her to fight from her ow...