If actor-politician Pawan Kalyan dominated Telugu social media space with his controversial speech two weeks ago at the pre-release event of Republic, this has now been replaced by the Movie Artists Association (MAA) polls and the daily squabble between the two panels. One panel is being led by Prakash Raj, and the other by Manchu Vishnu. The polls for the 26-member executive committee of MAA (for the term 2021-2023) will be held on October 10. The happenings around this election are no less intriguing than the Assembly or Parliamentary elections. The campaign has so far witnessed allegations and counter-allegations, threats, insinuations, a dose of ethnocentrism and lots of drama.
The campaign witnessed one of the ugliest moments when actor Karate Kalyani, contesting for the post of Joint Secretary from Manchu Vishnu’s panel, slut-shamed actor Hema, who is contesting for the position of Vice President from the opposite panel. Referring to the case of a B Com graduate who had morphed and uploaded obscene photos of Hema on the internet in 2017, Kalyani in a video said, “Before you people approached the police, didn’t Naresh and Shivaji Raja tell you to first delete the photos from your social media accounts in which you were seen wearing skimpy clothes holding a glass (alcohol)?” In 2017, Shivaji Raja, the then president of MAA, and Naresh, the then General Secretary along with Hema had approached the Cyber Crime police alleging sexual harassment. In the video, Kalyani also slut-shamed Hema by alleging that the latter had once shared an objectionable photo in their official WhatsApp group. “We have a lot of proof. If you speak further, we will have to reveal it,” she threatened in the video that was put out on Tuesday.
Hurt by this, Hema approached the Madhapur police the next day and filed complaints against both Kalyani and Naresh for maligning her. Naresh is presently the President of MAA. Hema urged the police to remove the slandering video from YouTube and other forums. Presently, the police are reviewing the merits of the case. Hema had also approached the election authorities to take disciplinary action and cancel the voting right of Kalyani for making a personal attack.
While this was happening, a teary-eyed Prakash Raj on Tuesday alleged that Vishnu’s panel was resorting to malpractice by paying for the postal ballot expenses of around 50 senior actors, and writing letters on their behalf seeking permission for postal ballot votes. He sought for a cancellation of the postal ballot votes. According to Prakash Raj, an aide of Manchu Vishnu paid a full amount of Rs 28,000 towards the expenses of senior citizens for the purpose of ballot votes. “Is this how elections are supposed to happen? Will you stoop so low just to win against us? Can’t you win fairly by seeking votes from members by briefing them on your promises?” Prakash Raj had said.
In response to this, Manchu Vishnu, who has pitched his election campaign with the “insider vs outsider” narrative, targeting Prakash Raj for being a non-Telugu person, has accused the latter of spreading “negativity” and “toxicity” with his campaign. These daily regular confrontations between the conflicting parties have become fodder for troll pages and the Telugu media, and there seems to be no relief in sight until the elections conclude.
Speculation that the Andhra Pradesh government is backing the Manchu Vishnu panel in the election has also made it inevitable that the media closely follows the events. Rubbishing the speculation, Andhra Pradesh Information and Public Relations Minister Perni Venkataramaiah (Nani), has said that neither the YSRCP nor the government has anything to do with the Telugu cinema elections.
Manchu Vishnu targeting Prakash Raj for being a non-Telugu has been condemned by several actors, including Pawan Kalyan. At the Republic pre-release event, Pawan Kalyan effectively supported the Prakash Raj panel by condemning the attacks against him.