Kendrapada: With election expenses skyrocketing, a former Congress MLA in Odisha has sold part of his residential properties to finance his daughter’s maiden electoral battle in Aul Assembly constituency of Kendrapara district.
Former Congress MLA from Aul Devendra Sharma put on sale a part of his land in Niala village so that daughter Debasmita does not face any fund crunch in her campaign for the upcoming elections. A doctor by profession, 28-year-old Debasmita quit her government job to take jump into poll fray.
Unwilling to accept financial support from the party and others to fund election campaign of her daughter, Devendra sold five decimals of land at Niala so that his daughter’s maiden political voyage does not encounter any roadblock.
Stating that Debasmita is fighting the poll against money, muscle power and the corrupt system, Devendra said his daughter is pitted against sitting BJD MLA and minister Pratap Keshari Deb and BJP candidate Krushna Chandra Panda, a businessman.In her fight against these stalwarts, she needs enormous support from us, he said.
Claiming that her rival candidates are spending huge money in the election, Debasmita expressed the hope that she will find favour of the voters for her sincere and honest stand to develop Aul constituency.
Stressing that she sacrificed her job as a government doctor to serve the villagers, she said her grandfather Dr Dibakarnath Sharma was also a physician and served the people of Aul as a doctor. “My father also served the people sincerely with dedication,” she said.
Debasmita further recalled that her father had to sell off a portion of his land during his election campaigning in 2014. The Sharmas have represented the Aul Assembly segment in the past.
Devendra was elected to the Odisha Assembly in 2014. His father Dibakarnath, also a doctor, was a Congress MLA in 1967-71.
Debasmita lamented that though the Election Commission of India (ECI) has prescribed expenditure limit of Rs 95 lakh for Lok Sabha and Rs 40 lakh for Assembly candidate, many are violating the norm by spending huge money.
