KOCHI: The election to the executive committee of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) was held on Sunday. Three of the candidates fielded by the official panel - Nivin Pauly, Asha Sharath and Honey Rose were defeated by independent candidates - actors Maniyanpilla Raju, Lal and Vijay Babu in the election.
The official panel had fielded Asha Sharath and Shwetha Menon for the vice-president post. Meanwhile, Raju contested as an independent candidate for the same post. Both Raju and Shwetha won the elections. Meanwhile, actor-producer Vijay Babu, actor-director Lal defeated the official candidates, Honey Rose and Nivin Pauly.
Actor Nazar Latheef had also filed nominations to the executive committee. The official candidates fielded for the 11-member executive committee were Rachana Narayanankutty, Unni Mukundan, Baburaj, Lena, Sudheer Karamana, Tovino Thomas, Honey Rose, Surabhi Lakshmi, Tiny Tom, Manju Pillai and Nivin Pauly.
The election to AMMA's executive committee was held several years after its inception in the mid-1990s.
Meanwhile, in a press meeting held after the election in Kochi, Maniyanpilla Raju said that there were no differences of opinion among the actors and the decision to participate in the election was taken to make the situation 'alive'. The AMMA has also modified its bylaw.
"We have modified our bylaw. We will be launching a strict code of conduct for the actors preventing them from using drugs or any similar narcotics on the shooting sets. There will be separate cells for the welfare of women. Steps will also be taken to counter fake news spreading on social media platforms against AMMA and its members," said executive committee member Baburaj.