Puri: Senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Pinaki Mishra, who retained the Puri Lok Sabha seat in the recently concluded general elections, will donate his MP salary for the next five years to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF).
Taking to his official Twitter handle, Pinaki wrote that he has decided to donate his entire salary and daily allowance to the CMRF to help the affected people of Puri district ravaged by cyclone Fani.
In the Lok Sabha polls, he defeated his nearest rival, BJP’s Sambit Patra, by a margin of only 11,700 votes. The counting dragged on for almost 24 hours, as none was willing to concede space to the other. Sambit took the lead as initial trends started pouring in, but Pinaki came from behind and continued to maintain the lead.At no point of time was the margin more than 2,000-3,000 votes. Eventually, Pinaki widened the lead and won by a slender margin in Parliamentary standards. He polled 5.37 lakh votes while Sambit garnered 5.24 lakh votes.
