Vishnu Manchu panel sweeps MAA 2021 elections

Actors Vishnu Manchu, Raghu Babu and Siva Balaji were declared winners and will assume the posts of Movie Artist Association (MAA) president, general secretary and treasurer respectively. Reportedly, Vishnu Manchu has defeated Prakash Raj by 107 votes in the race for the apex post of MAA.

Vishnu's fellow member Madala Ravi was elected as the vice-president, while Srikanth, Benerjee and Uttej won as the executive vice-president, vice-president and joint secretary from Prakash Raj's panel. Actors Srilakshmi, Jayavani, Poojitha, Manik and Srinivasulu P have won as the executive committee members.

There was suspense till 10:30 pm at Jubilee Hills Public School, where the elections were held on Sunday. With the results, the brouhaha surrounding the election of the new governing body of MAA has finally ended. For the most part of the counting, the difference between the two panels was not considerable. Initially, the Vishnu panel seemed to be trailing, but it went on to sweep the contest with a huge margin.

The victory sparked off celebrations by Vishnu Manchu's supporters who greeted each other and burst crackers at the counting center. Prakash Raj has extended his greetings to Vishnu Manchu along with other members of the panel.

For the first time since the formation of MAA, out of 900 eligible members, the 2021 election has witnessed the highest-ever voter turnout of 673 members casting ballots at the polling station, 201 members more than the 2019 election.

Conspicuous by their absence during the voting were actors Venkatesh, Mahesh Babu, Prabhas, Jr NTR, Allu Arjun, Naga Chaitanya, Rana Daggubati, Vijay Deverakonda, Pooja Hegde, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Rakul Preet Singh, Anushka Shetty, Trisha Krishnan, Ileana D'Cruz, Rashmika Mandanna, Keerthy Suresh, Hansika Motwani and Tamannaah Bhatia.

Actor Chiranjeevi has urged that post-elections, there should be unity among the members and everyone should ensure that such personal attacks and controversies never happen in MAA again.

Naga Babu resigns as MAA member

In a surprising turn of events, actor Naga Babu, who extended support for Prakash Raj in the elections, has tendered his resignation from the primary membership of MAA. He also stated that his resignation letter would be sent to the office of MAA in 48 hours.