Chennai: Thenandal Films’ Murali Ramasamy has been elected as the new President of Tamil Film Producers Council. He managed to get 557 votes while his opponent T Rajendar got 388 votes and the independent candidate PL Thenappan managed just 87 votes.

RK Suresh and Kathiresan are the vice presidents of the TFPC while Chandraprakash Jain has been elected as the treasurer.

The election was held on Sunday at MGR Janaki College. Nearly 1050 members registered their votes. It was one of the closely contested polls and there were allegations that cash was distributed for votes.

The election took place under the supervision of a retired Judge and huge police security was provided at the venue.

In 2019, following several conflicts within the council, with the previous opposition staging protests, locking TFPC office premises, and demanding the then-president Vishal’s immediate resignation, the Tamilnadu government intervened and appointed a Special Officer to oversee the functioning of the council.