The absence of top stars and a stiff contest between actor-turned-politician Jayasudha and comedian-cum-character artiste Rajendra Prasad for the post of president marked elections of the Movie Artistes Association (MAA) here on Sunday.
Conspicuous by their absence were Chiranjeevi and his sibling Pawan Kalyan, Mahesh Babu and his sister Manjula, Akkineni Nagarjuna, Junior NTR and Daggubati Venkatesh.
Of the 702 voters, only 394 turned up and prominent among them included Nandamuri Balakrishna and Nandamuri Taraka Ratna, Krishna and his wife Vijayanirmala, and U.V. Krishnam Raju.
First hot contest
There was never a serious contest, more so for the post of president, in MAA elections in the past. The fact that elections took place this time for the posts of president, general secretary, executive vice-president, treasurer, two joint secretaries and 18 executive committee members is in itself a rarity, admit those in the industry. Manchu Lakshmi and Sivakrishna were unanimously elected vice-presidents. Interestingly, the average thus far has only been around 350.
Court forbids results
A spanner in the works this time was the ruling of a City Civil Court that permitted the elections, but asked for the results to be withheld. This followed a petition filed by a filmmaker O. Kalyan, who moved the court alleging irregularities in the conduct of elections.
Among others, he said members were not intimated of the elections 21 days before, and pointed out that there was only a circular displayed on the notice board. Mr. Kalyan said there were other irregularities, including that a legal advisor had not been appointed for the elections.
He also made a reference to that fact that fees for the nomination of an Executive Committee member had been increased from Rs.2,500 to Rs.10,000 and for an office-bearer from Rs.5,000 to Rs.15,000. This, he said, ruled out the chances of a common man contesting in the elections to the body. The court ordered that results of the elections should be declared only after March 31, once it heard the petition filed by Mr. Kalyan. Interestingly, Mr. Rajendra Prasad had once contested against and lost to outgoing president M. Muralimohan.
Chiranjeevi, Pawan Kalyan, Mahesh Babu, Nagarjuna, Venkatesh and Jr. NTR were absent
