Crucial by-election for Jayalalithaa sees high voting percentage

Chennai: An Assembly by-election that AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa must win to remain the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister ended on Saturday evening with tens of thousands voting. Polling in the Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency where Jayalalithaa is pitted against CPI's C Mahendran ended at 5 pm with 74.4 per cent of the around 2,50,000 electorate exercising their franchise.

Jayalalithaa must win to remain CM

According to an Election Commission statement, issued here after polling, the 74.4 percent was a tentative figure and the final figure would be known only on the receipt of documents from all the 230 polling stations. The polling percentage was higher compared to the 2011 assembly elections.

While there were 28 candidates in the fray this time, only Mahendran of the Communist Party of India is being viewed as a serious opponent. Jayalalithaa is widely expected to win. There are 26 other independents and candidates from smaller parties including social activist KR Ramaswamy, popularly known as ‘Traffic Ramaswamy'.