Kochi: Actors Joy Mathew, Jayan Cherthala and Kailash have resigned from the governing committee of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), while Shwetha Menon is yet to submit her resignation formally.

In his resignation letter, Joy Mathew said the governing committee, including himself, should take responsibility for the organisation becoming a public embarrassment. He also alleged that AMMA had turned into a dysfunctional organisation.

Questioning the purpose of continuing in office, Jayan Cherthala said there was no clarity on whether the governing committee was functioning or had effectively resigned.

In the committee headed by Shwetha Menon as president and Kukku Parameswaran as general secretary, Jayan Cherthala served as vice-president. The other vice-president, Lakshmi Priya, had resigned earlier. Joy Mathew and Kailash were members of the executive committee.

The internal rift within AMMA came into the open after Ansiba, who was the joint secretary, resigned. It remains unclear whether treasurer Unni Shivapal and executive committee members Sarayu, Vinu Mohan, Tini Tom, Neena Kurup, Santhosh Keezhattoor, Dr Ronnie David Raj, Sijoy Varghese, Anjali Nair and Asha Aravind have also submitted their resignations.

After the Shwetha Menon-led committee announced its resignation before the general body, an ad hoc committee was elected. The committee is headed by MLA Ramesh Pisharody and includes former minister KB Ganesh Kumar, Suresh Krishna, Ronnie David Raj, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Krishna Prabha, Asha Aravind, Devi Chandana and Sadiq. Ronnie David Raj and Asha Aravind were also members of the committee that had announced its resignation. Asha Aravind later declared that she would not continue in the ad hoc committee.

A day earlier, ad hoc committee chairman Ramesh Pisharody said that Shwetha Menon and other office-bearers who had publicly announced their resignations from AMMA had not submitted formal resignation letters. According to him, general secretary Kukku Parameswaran had informed the committee that no resignation email had been received from Shwetha or the other office-bearers. However, Mallika Sukumaran and Lakshmi Priya, who had publicly supported Shwetha, had informed the organisation of their resignations via email, he added.

Ad hoc committee member KB Ganesh Kumar said it was Shwetha's responsibility to formally submit the resignation she had announced before the general body and the media, adding that her failure to do so was her own issue.

Meanwhile, Shwetha Menon indicated that she does not intend to step down from the president's post. In a Facebook post, she said she would not leave until she had proved her innocence.