The South Indian Artistes Association, popularly known as the Nadigar Sangam, has completed its extended three-year term. A meeting of the members of the actors union, which is helmed by General Secretary and actor Vishal, announced on Sunday that polls for the next administration will be held soon.
Speaking to the media in Chennai, President of the body Nasser said, “The work of this administration happily and successfully legally concludes today. We will institute an election official who will be a retired judge, and based on his advice we will announce a date (for the polls). All things will be done legally. The electoral officer will announce the time and place of the polls. That was the important resolution today.”
Ponvannan, the Vice President of the Nadigar Sangam, added that members of the body must be given notice of the elections 21 days prior to polling, as per the union’s bye-laws. “By the end of the week, we will decide the electoral officer. The following week he will take over the responsibility of the existing administration and decide the legalities. He will choose the place and then decide the date. Election works begin tomorrow,” he said.
The three-year term of the Nadigar Sangam was to end in October last year. However, at a general body meeting in August 2018, it was decided that elections would be postponed by six months. The decision was taken since a new building, as promised by Vishal’s team, was to be inaugurated in March 2019. The 35-crore building complex, however, is yet to be completed, much less inaugurated on a grand scale as planned.
When asked about this, Ponvannan said that there were problems with regard to the building. “Our biggest aim when we took up responsibility was to complete the building within a specific time period. We have been taking efforts since day 1. We had to buy the building from SPI Cinemas, cancel the existing contract, draw up a new plan, get it approved at the General Body meeting, raise funds for it, get it approved by the CMDA and corporation, and start the field work. We also faced legal issues in between and issues due to rains. So our plan has been lagging by six months. It’s not a big deal,” he replied. He also added that contestants for the polls would be announced later.