In pics: High-profile candidates contesting Bengal election on April 21

Kolkata, April 18: Seven constituencies in Kolkata will go to the polls on Thursday (April 21), when the third of the ongoing Assembly election will be held. Sixty-two constituencies will go to the election in this phase, making it the biggest among the seven phases.

Besides Kolkata, 55 constituencies in Murshidabad, Nadia and Burdwan districts will also go to the election in this phase. A number of high-profile candidates from various parties will contest in this phase. [List of 62 seats going to polls on April 21]

Here is a look at the leaders contesting in this phase, sometimes even against each other:

Nayna Banerjee - TMC

Nayna Banerjee, an actor-turned-politician and wife of TMC's sitting MP Sudip Banerjee, will contest from Chowringhee, the seat she won in the 2014 bypoll. Nayna Banerjee was also elected as the MLA from Bowbazar in the 2001 election. She will take on veteran Congress leader Somen Mitra and BJP's Ritesh Tiwari, who she defeated in the 2014 bypoll from Chowringhee which the TMC has been winning since 2001.

Somen Mitra - Congress

Somen Mitra, 73, will contest from Chowringhee against TMC's Nayna Banerjee. A veteran of many electoral war, Mitra was originally a Congressman who left that party in 2008 to float a new party which was later merged with the TMC. He was elected as a TMC MP from Diamond Harbour in 2009 but left the party in 2014 to return to the Congress along with his wife Sikha who was the MLA from Chowringhee earlier.

Rahul Sinha - BJP

The former Bengal BJP chief and currently the party's national secretary, Rahul Sinha, 53, is contesting from Jorashanko constituency in North Kolkata. He will be challenging the sitting TMC MLA, Smita Bakshi. Sinha contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Kolkata North constituency but lost to TMC's Sudip Chatterjee.

Smita Bakshi - TMC

Fifty-three-year-old Smita Bakshi is the sitting MLA of Jorashanko constituency which she won in 2011 by grabbing over 51 per cent vote share. Bakshi will take on ex-BJP chief of Bengal Rahul Sinha. Smita started her political career in the Chhatra Parishad and became a councillor in 1995. She later joined the TMC.

Shashi Panja - TMC

Daughter-in-law of late Union minister Ajit Kumar Panja, Sashi Panja (in saree) is the sitting MLA from Shyampukur constituency in Kolkata. A councillor of the Kolkata Municipal corporation, Shashi won the 2011 election from Shaympukur by grabbing almost 58 per cent of vote share. She is also a minister of state in the West Bengal Council of Ministers. She will take on Left's Piyali Pal and BJP's Som Mandal in this election.

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