Nasser,Vishal elected President,General Secretary respectively

Veteran actor M Nasser and young hero Vishal were tonight elected as President and General Secretary respectively of the South Indian Artistes' Association.
The election of Nasser and Vishal were officially declared by the Election Officer Padmanabhan, even as the Vishal-led team was leading in other posts also.
Nasser trounced incumbent R Sarath Kumar even as the outgoing head urged that the hatchet between the actors be buried in the interests of the unity of the Tamil film fraternity.
Extending his greetings to Nasser and Vishal, Sarath Kumar, also an MLA, promised his support to them to take the actors' body forward.

Nasser polled 1,334 votes while Sarath Kumar received 1,231, according to Padmanabhan.
Sarath Kumar was leading in the initial phase of counting.

Similarly, Vishal, who had been leading an aggressive campaign against Sarath Kumar and his colleagues, defeated senior actor Radha Ravi.
He polled 1,445 votes against Ravi's 1,138.
Counting was on for the posts of Vice-President and Treasurer even as trends pointed out that Vishal-supported candidates were leading.
In one of the most bitterly fought elections to the posts of SIAA including President, the Tamil film world had virtually been divided between the two sparring sides, with seniors like Rajinikant and Kamal Haasan stressing for actors' unity post the elections.