Friday, March 17 2006 16:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bhubaneswar: Former MP Sushila Tiriya today (Mar 17 2006) filed her nomination papers as the Congress candidate for the March 28 election to the Rajya Sabha from Orissa.

She is the fourth candidate to have filed nominations on the last day of filing of documents for the biennial polls.

Tiriya, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Mayurbhanj (ST) constituency in 1996, was a member of the upper house between 1986-92.0

AICC general secretary V Narayanswamy, leader of opposition J B Patnaik, PCC president Jayadev Jena and a host of Congress and other opposition legislators were present when she filed her papers before the assembly secretary Balakrushna Sahu.

Three Rajya Sabha seats fell vacant in Orissa following the completion of the six year term of BJD's Baijayant Panda and Birabhadra Singh and BJP's Rudranarayan Pani.

Another seat was also vacated following the expulsion of Chhatrapal Singh Lodha (BJP) in the wake of the cash-for-querry scam necessitating a byelection to be held on the same day.

While the BJD renominated Panda for a new term, its alliance partner BJP also decided to renominate Pani to the upper house while fielding a tribal leader Bhagirathi Majhi for the byelection.

With four candidates in the fray for the four vacancies, it appears all of them would be elected uncontested.

"I will raise issues pertaining to tribals and women in the parliament," Tiriya, a former AICC secretary, told sources after filing her nomination papers.