Sana Sathish Babu’s meteoric rise in less than two decades will see him going from an electricity department employee, in all likelihood, to entering the halls of the Rajya Sabha as a Member of Parliament (MP). The name of the industrialist was finalised by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to contest in the upcoming Rajya Sabha by-elections.
Sathish’s humble beginnings as a middle-class boy lie in the Godavari region of coastal Andhra. After working for close to a decade as an electricity department employee, the job he got on compassionate grounds due to the passing away of his father, he quit his job and shifted base to Hyderabad.
Sathish soon got involved in several businesses and investments and earned the reputation of being a smart lobbyist having close ties with politicians from across the political spectrum. He had business interests ranging from real estate, and natural resources to pubs. He came under the scanner of central probing agencies after he was booked for money laundering by the Enforcement Directorate.
The case involved meat exporter Moin Qureshi. In 2019, he was arrested by the ED and sent to judicial custody. Before that, he was also embroiled in a fight between then-top CBI officials, special director Rakesh Asthana and director Alok Verma. In a complaint to CBI, he alleged that Asthana had taken bribes to the tune of Rs 2 crores from him. More recently in 2024, the Delhi High Court upheld money laundering proceedings against Sana Sathish and justified the summons issued by ED.
A cricket player during his heydays, Sathish has also held key posts in the Andhra Cricket Association and other district and lower-level cricket associations. Through his NGO, Sana Sathish Babu Foundation, he is actively involved in charity and social work catering to the downtrodden population in the Andhra region.
Sathish has been nursing political ambition for some time now. There were strong speculations that he had tried hard to secure a TDP ticket for a Lok Sabha constituency in the recent general elections but failed. However, within the ruling TDP government in AP, he is seen as an influential figure even without holding any official post. Since the TDP has the required numbers and with the blessings of top leadership of the TDP-BJP-JSP alliance, it would be a cakewalk for Satheesh to become a parliamentarian.
