AMMA elections on Aug 16: Jagadeesh, Shweta Menon among contenders for top role

The upcoming election to the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), scheduled for August 16, will witness a multi-cornered contest with six prominent actors — including Jagadeesh, Shweta Menon, and Devan — filing nominations for the post of president.

Kochi: Six actors have filed nomination for the president’s post in the election to the governing body of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) to be held on August 16.

The nomination of actor-director Joy Mathew to the post was rejected due to ‘technical error,’ AMMA sources said.

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A total of 93 nominations has been received for the posts of president, vice president, general secretary, joint secretary and the executive committee, the sources said.

The candidates for the post of president are actors Jagadeesh, Shweta Menon, Devan, Raveendran, Anoop Chandran and Jayan Cherthala.

“I decided to contest in my own capacity,” senior actor Jagadeesh told PTI when asked whether he had discussed with his colleagues before filing his nomination for the president’s post, normally elected through a consensus.

Joy Mathew, whose nominations to the posts of president and general secretary were rejected on technical grounds, said his nomination for the executive has been accepted.

“I am still in the contest,” Joy Mathew told PTI, adding that it has to be examined what went wrong in the nomination papers.

The last date for withdrawal of nominations is July 30, after which the clear picture of the contestants will emerge.

The election was necessitated by the resignation of AMMA president Mohanlal and the entire committee headed by him in August last year after a series of allegations of sexual harassment against some of its office-bearers.

Mohanlal had since then openly stated that he will not contest for the post any longer and wanted the young generation to take over.