Chennai:
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa on Friday constituted a 43-member working group, which included almost the entire state cabinet, to oversee preparations for the June 12 by-election to the Pudukottai assembly seat.
Several ministers as well as leaders of party's various frontal organisations have been entrusted with the task of ensuring the victory of party nominee V R Karthik Thondaiman, Pudukottai Municipal Chairman, in the bypoll.
Hailing from the Thondaiman family, which ruled the erstwhile Pudukottai princely state, 42-year-old Karthik is the district MGR Youth Wing leader.
Bypoll to the constituency has been necessitated following the death of CPI legislator S P Muthukumaran in a road mishap on April 1.
CPI and PMK have already decided not to contest the byelection.
In the 2011 Tamil Nadu assembly elections, Muthukumaran of CPI in the AIADMK-led alliance defeated DMK candidate Periyannan Arasu but AIADMK and CPI parted ways for the civic polls.