Jayalalithaa will face the voters on Saturday

Chennai: In a by-election tipped to bring her back to the Tamil Nadu assembly, Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaaa faces a CPI candidate in the Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency here on Saturday.

Around 250,000 voters are eligible to take part in the electoral battle whose two main candidates are the AIADMK general secretary and C. Mahendran of the Communist Party of India.

There are also 26 other independents and candidates from small parties in the fray including social activist K.R. Ramaswamy, popularly known as "Traffic Ramaswamy".

The polling will begin at 8 a.m. and close at 5 p.m.
Opposition parties like the DMK, the PMK, the DMDK, the Congress, the BJP and the MDMK have decided to stay away from the Saturday contest.

However, the two Left parties CPI and CPI-M have fielded Mahendran as their joint candidate.
The votes will be counted on June 30.