BHUBANESWAR: All the three candidates of the ruling BJD, including former Indian hockey captain Dilip Tirkey, were on Thursday declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha.
The other two are BJD leader Rabi Narayan Mohapatra of Nayagarh and A V Swamy from Nuapada, the independent candidate supported by the ruling BJD.
The results were declared by the returning officer and Assembly Secretary Amiya Kumar Sarangi after the time for withdrawals ended.
As there was no other contestant in the fray for the biennial election, it would not be necessary to hold election earlier scheduled for March 30 for the three vacant seats from the State, he said.
Though four others had filed nominations for the Rajya Sabha polls, these were rejected during scrutiny as the papers were without any proposer.
The seats had fallen vacant following completion of tenure of Kishore Mohanty of BJD, Rudra Narayan Pani of BJP and Sushila Tiria of Congress.