Prakash Raj takes on Vishnu Manchu in direct fight for MAA president

The battle lines are drawn for the October 10 elections for Movie Artistes Association MAA the apex body of TollywoodWith CVL Narasimha Rao and K Shravan Kumar withdrawing their nominations actor Prakash Raj is locked in a direct fight with Vishnu Manchu for the post of MAA presidentA total of 56 candidates are in the fray for elections to 26member body of MAA Election officer Krishna Mohan announced the final list of candidates after the withdrawal of nominationsBabu Mohan and Srikanth will vie for the post of MAA executive president For the two posts of vicepresidents actorproducer Madhala Ravi and comedian Prithviraj Bali Reddy are contesting from Vishnu panel From Prakash Rajs panel Benerjee and Hema are in the fray for the same postsFor the key post of general secretary Jeevita Rajasekhar is contesting as a candidate from Prakash Rajs panel She is locked in a direct fight with Raghu Babu from Vishnus panelBandla Ganesh had also filed his nomination for the post but withdrew from the contest on the advice of industry eldersFor the post of treasure actor Siva Balaji Vishnus panel is pitted against Nagineedu Prakash Raj PanelCharacter actor Karate Kalyani and comedian Gautham Raju from Vishnus panel will be testing their fortunes for the post of joint secretaries Uttej Anit Chowdary and Bacchala Srinivas are also in the fray for the two postsA total of 39 candidates are in the fray for 18 posts of executive members The candidates from Vishnus panel for these posts are Archana Veda Ashok Kumar Geeta Singh Harinath Babu Jayavani Malakpeta Shailaja Manik Poojitha Rajeshwari Reddy Rekha Sampoornesh Babu Shashank Sivannarayana Silakshmi P Srinivasulu Swapna Madhu Vishnu Bopanna and MRC VadlapatlaPrakash Raj panel includes Srikanth Uttej Anasuya Ajay Bhopal Brahmaji ETV Prabhakar Govind Rao Khayyum Kaushik Pragathi Ramanareddy Sridhar Rao Shivareddy Sameer Sudigali Sudhir Subbaraju Suresh Kondetti Tanish and TarzanMore than 900 movie artists will cast their votes on October 10 Electronic Voting Machines will be used for the polling to be held at Jubliee Public School in Film Nagar from 8 am to 2 pm Results will be announced the same eveningPrakash Raj was the first to announce his panel and he has been actively campaigning He also received support from actors Jeevitha Rajasekhar and Hema who dropped their plans to contest against him and joined his panelAlso Read Prakash Raj marries wife Pony Verma again shares heartfelt noteI came here to serve the film industry I want to serve my fellow artistes and industry people Prakash Raj had said while announcing his panelPrakash Raj who unsuccessfully contested as an independent candidate in 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Bengaluru Central made cautious manoeuvres to win the support of many He urged the MAA members to cast their conscience voteMaaElections2021 Your vote is your voice The welfare of MAA is our viewpoint Lets vote with conscience and ensure the victory of MAA aspirations the actor tweeted after filing his nomination last weekIt also includes Uttej as Joint Secretary Banerjee as Vice President Hema as Vice President Srikanth as Executive Vice President and Jeevitha Rajasekhar as General SecretaryTollywood sources say Prakash Raj has considerably bright chances of winning the election as MAA president He enjoys the backing of Megastar Chiranjeevi and his family membersOn the other hand Vishnu received the support from outgoing president Naresh who criticized Prakash RajIn the 25 years history of MAA have you cast your vote at least once Did you attend any general body meeting he asked Prakash RajIn 2019 actorproducer Naresh was elected as MAA president defeating Shivaji Raja who was contesting for second consecutive termOn the Naresh panel Jeevitha Rajasekhar was elected as general secretary while her husband actor Rajasekhar was elected as executive vicepresidentNaresh said though one year of his term was wasted because of Covid19 pandemic he worked efficiently for the welfare of all He alleged that some outsiders influenced about 11 members and blocked the welfare works for under privileged artistsHe claimed that for the first time in MAA history his panel provided insurance for 900 members If any member died we ensured the insurance money of Rs 3 lakh reached the deceased family he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliabilitsy and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever