Bhubaneswar, June 21: The three candidates for the biennial Rajya Sabha election were today declared to have been elected unopposed for a six-year-term in the Upper House.

While the BJP’s Rudra Pani won the Rajya Sabha bypoll for a two-year-term, Biju Janata Dal candidate and retired bureaucrat Pyarimohan Mohapatra, BJP candidate and former Union minister Chhatarpal Singh and Congress candidate Radhakanta Nayak were declared unopposed winners by the Assembly secretary for the three Rajya Sabha seats that would fall vacant by the end of this week.

BJP candidate Rudra Pani won the bypoll for the seat vacated by former Orissa party chief Manmohan Samal,

If an Independent candidate had filed his nomination, then an election would have been necessitated on June 28.

Though well-heeled, surprisingly none of the four candidates managed to join the “crorepati club” if their affidavits were anything to go by.

Though Mohapatra’s name was synonymous with unbridled power, records submitted showed that he owned assets worth Rs 53 lakh only.

Mohapatra was principal secretary to the late Biju Patnaik when the latter was the chief minister from 1990 to 1995.

He has also donned the mantle of adviser to Naveen Patnaik for the past four years.

Among his assets were h is Shahid Nagar house worth Rs 40 lakh, a Opel Corsa car worth Rs 5 lakh, bonds and debentures over Rs 3 lakh and bank deposits worth over Rs 1 lakh.

The richest candidate in the fray, Chhatarpal Singh, possessed more than Rs 90 lakh in terms of bank deposits, landed property and houses.

Singh had deposits worth over Rs 4 lakh in several bank accounts, agricultural land worth Rs 28 lakh, non-agricultural land worth Rs 20 lakh, two houses worth Rs 34 lakh and an Ambassador car worth Rs 4 lakh, among others.

Congress candidate Radhakanta Nayak possessed assets worth Rs 55 lakh. Nayak, in his affidavit, stated that he owned four houses worth Rs 38 lakh.

He also claimed, at the risk of raising a few eyebrows, to own a house valued at Rs 30,000, way below the price of a Indira Awas house allotted to people below poverty line.

He owned shares and government relief bonds worth Rs 5 lakh as well. The former bureaucrat, however, did not own any vehicle.

BJP’s Rudra Pani, who would serve in the Upper House for 22 months, turned out to be the poorest of the four candidates.

Pani’s affidavit showed that he owned a Bajaj scooter and had only Rs 5,000 in cash. It also stated that Pani stayed in a house owned by his father.