BJD Leader Pinaki Misra to Give His Salary, Allowance to CM Relief Fund After Winning Puri Seat

In the Lok Sabha Elections 2019, BJP's Sambit Patra had lost the Puri constituency by a narrow margin to sitting MP Pinaki Misra. Therefore to celebrate the victory, Misra decided to donate his salary towards the CM Relief Fund.

New Delhi: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader MP Pinaki Misra on Saturday announced his decision to give away his salary and allowances from Parliament for the cause of the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. He reportedly said, “I’m very grateful that they showered me with so much affection – Puri parliamentary constituency in its entirety and as a token of thanks, I have decided to give my entire salary and allowances from Parliament to CM Relief Fund so that it can be used for people of Puri.”

The announcement comes a day after the Election Commission confirmed that senior BJD leader had won the Puri Lok Sabha constituency in Odisha by 11,714 votes. Notably, Pinaki Misra had defeated Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national spokesperson Sambit Patra in Lok Sabha Elections 2019.

Sambit Patra had won 46.37 per cent of the total votes, which is a little less when compared to Pinaki Misra’s 47.4 per cent vote share.

Odisha: BJP candidate from Puri, Sambit Patra has lost by over 11,000 votes to BJD’s Pinaki Misra. #ElectionResults2019 (file pics) pic.twitter.com/UGgp0sQeLi

— ANI (@ANI) May 24, 2019

Odisha went for the Lok Sabha polling in four phases which began on April 11 in the Vidarbha region. This region recorded a fall in voter turnout due to Cyclone Fani. Notably, in the previous General Elections, Misra had won the Puri seat by defeating the INC candidate with a margin of 2,63,361 votes. There were a total of 7 contestants in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Sweeping clean in the Lok Sabha Elections 2019, the BJP routed the Congress, which could barely improve beyond its 2014 tally of 44 seats. The 17th Lok Sabha has to be constituted before June 3 and the process to form a new House will be initiated when the three Election Commissioners meet the President in the next few days to hand over the list of newly-elected members. Meanwhile, India has started sending invitations to foreign leaders for Modi’s oath-taking ceremony. These include countries in the neighbourhood and the Asean.

(With agency inputs)