Actor Vishnu Manchu on Thursday, September 23 announced his panel for the upcoming elections to the Movie Artistes Association (MAA), the apex body of Tollywood. "For my MAA, our privilege and honour," tweeted the actor while posting the names of his panel members who will be contesting for various posts. Vishnu will take on well-known actor Prakash Raj for the post of president in the elections scheduled to be held on October 10. The elections are likely to see a triangular contest as character artiste CVL Narasimha Rao has also announced his plans to contest. He is yet to announce his panel.
From Vishnu's panel, actor Raghu Babu will be contesting for general secretary, veteran actor and former minister Babu Mohan for executive vice-president, actor-producer Madhala Ravi and comedian Prithviraj Bali Reddy for vice-president, actor Siva Balaji for the post of treasurer, character actor Karate Kalyani and comedian Gautham Raju for joint secretary. Vishnu also named 18 candidates for the posts of executive members. They 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 Vadlapatla.
Prakash Raj has already announced his panel and is actively campaigning. He also received support from actors Jeevitha Rajasekhar and Hema, who dropped their plans to contest against him and joined his panel. Jeevitha will be contesting for the post of general secretary while Hema is in the race for the vice-president's post. Actor Meka Srikanth is contesting for the post of executive vice-president and Banerjee for the vice-president's post. Actors Uttej and Anitha Chowdary are the candidates for the post of joint secretaries while senior character artiste Nagineedu is in the race for the treasurer's post.
"I came here to serve the film industry. I want to serve my fellow artistes and industry people," Prakash Raj had said while announcing his panel.
Tollywood sources say Prakash Raj has considerably bright chances of winning the election as MAA president. He enjoys the backing of Megastar Chiranjeevi.
In 2019, actor-producer Naresh was elected as MAA president defeating Shivaji Raja, who was contesting for the second consecutive term. On the Naresh panel, Jeevitha was elected general secretary while her husband, actor Rajasekhar, was elected executive vice-president.