West Bengal Assembly election 2021, Parno Mitra profile: Actor and BJP's Baranagar candidate to take on TMC's Tapas Roy

Tollywood actor Parno Mitra will be contesting from Baranagar seat in the northern fringe of Kolkata on a BJP ticket in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly polls.

Parno will take on state minister and TMC MLA Tapas Roy on 17 April in the fifth of the eight-phased Assembly election.

Besides Parno, some of the other prominent TV personalities to join the saffron camp were Rrishii Kaushik, Kanchana Moitra, Rupanjana Mitra, Moumita Gupta, Rupa Bhattacharya and Arindam Haldar aka Lama.

"Bengal is a laggard in vital areas such as education, health care and industry. I believe the deficiencies can be overcome only by the BJP, not the ruling party. I don’t believe in politics on social media. Participation, if any, should be direct. That is why I am here today," Parno had said.

Asked if she feared losing work because of her political affiliation, Parno said she had always been selective when it came to choosing films and so was in no danger of suffering a career setback.

By fielding Parno, a prominent name in the Bengali television industry, BJP hopes to counter chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee's culture clan that includes the glitterati of Tinseltown.

Parno was born in Kolkata. Her father worked in Arunachal Pradesh, and she spent a major part of her childhood there. She studied at Dow Hill School in Kurseong, Darjeeling and Pratt Memorial School in Kolkata.

The Baranagar Assembly constituency lies in the North 24 Parganas district. It is a part of the Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency.

The voting will begin on 27 March, with Bengal having the maximum eight phases continuing till 29 April. Including Baranagar, 44 Assembly seats will go to polls in the fifth phase. The results of the election will be declared on 2 May.

The state is held by the AITC with an absolute majority, with Mamata on her second consecutive term as chief minister. The ruling party is fighting a pitched battle with archrival BJP, while the Congress-led alliance is also a key player in the fray.