Thiruvananthapuram, June 22 -- The 17-member governing council of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), including its first woman president Shweta Menon, stepped down at the general body meeting of the outfit on Sunday, following severe infighting and allegations of financial mismanagement.

Menon also resigned from primary membership of the actors' body, citing an "agenda to remove us from our positions". The abrupt move comes less than a year after Menon and Kukku Parameswaran were elected president and general secretary respectively of AMMA, the first time women occupied the top two posts of the influential actors' body.

The governing council's resignation came after a section of the outfit's members moved a no-confidence...