Chennai, Apr 27 - Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa today constituted a 43-member working group, which included almost the entire state cabinet, to oversee preparations for the June 12 byelection 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 one.

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. PTI