The Telugu Desam Social gathering (TDP) late on Monday night time ended the suspense relating to its selection for the 2 vacant Rajya Sabha seats, renominating Beedha Masthan Rao and together with a shock decide in controversial businessman Sathish Babu Sana. With no different candidates towards them, each will win unopposed.
Exterior Andhra, Sana is greatest recognized for accusing then CBI particular director Rakesh Asthana in 2018 of taking a bribe of Rs 3 crore to let him off in a case associated to controversial meat-exporter Moin Qureshi. The grievance had triggered an all out CBI versus CBI warfare with then director Alok Verma reserving Asthana and ordering a probe towards him, forcing the company to ship each officers on go away.
In June 2019, Sana was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in reference to Qureshi cash laundering case and is presently out on bail, after the ED filed a chargesheet naming him.
The TDP, which is now an ally of the ruling BJP on the Centre, calls the costs a part of a “political conspiracy”.
Sources within the TDP stated that Sana was picked resulting from his proximity to the highest TDP management. “Although he doesn’t have any political expertise, he has been within the neighborhood of politics for a very long time,” a supply stated.
A local of Kakinada, Sana began his profession as an worker of the Andhra Pradesh Electrical energy Board earlier than quitting and shifting to Hyderabad, the place he floated various firms like Gold Coast Properties Non-public Restricted, Rasama Estates, Matrix Pure Sources Non-public Restricted and East Godavari Breweries Non-public Restricted. Since his foray into enterprise, he has been recognized to be near leaders of the YSR Congress Social gathering (YSRCP), Congress and TDP.
“Locals began to check with him as ‘lightning Sana’ after he went up an electrical energy pole throughout a storm in Kakinada to restore it. He has at all times thought concerning the well-being of Kakinda’s individuals,” a TDP chief in Kakinada stated.
Sana has additionally dabbled with sports activities administration and served because the secretary of the East Godavari Cricket Affiliation for a short time earlier than changing into its lifetime member, and as a museum committee member of the Board of Management for Cricket in India (BCCI). Yearly, he organises the Sana Sathish Babu Cricket Championship.
On why Sana was most popular over not less than 10 senior TDP leaders seen to be aspirants, sources stated: “Firstly, the knowledge that 10 leaders had been within the reckoning (for a Rajya Sabha berth) is mistaken. Solely Mopidevi garu was within the race however he himself opted out saying he was extra suited to Andhra than Delhi. Therefore, we checked out Sana. The allegations towards him haven’t been confirmed. There are a lot of members of Parliament who’ve allegations towards them,” a supply stated.
One other chief stated that if the allegations are confirmed, the occasion will take motion towards Sana. “Similar to Koneti Adimulam (TDP Sathyavedu MLA) was suspended (over allegations of sexual harassment), the occasion is agency that it’s going to act towards wrongdoings of its members,” the chief stated.
Requested concerning the TDP naming Sana for the Rajya Sabha, sources within the BJP stated it was the occasion’s “inside matter”.
The opposite Rajya Sabha nominee of the TDP, Nellore-born Masthan Rao, is the Chairman of BMR Industries, one of many largest shrimp exporters within the nation. Seen to be a tall chief of the Andhra Yadav neighborhood, he went to Guntur college with YSR Congress Social gathering (YSRCP) Rajya Sabha MP V Vijayasai Reddy.
He made his Meeting ballot debut in 2009 from the Kavali phase, the place he defeated the Congress’s Vishnuvardhan Reddy by round 19,000 votes. After his election as an MLA, he tasked his cousin Beedha Ravichandra, who was seen as near TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and an MLC, with managing his cadre and different native points as he went on to grow to be probably the most outstanding Yadav face of the TDP within the state.
Regardless of his loss within the 2014 Meeting elections, he was made an advisory member of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Area Growth Authority (APCRDA) between 2014 and 2019.
He contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the Nellore Lok Sabha seat however misplaced to Addala Prabhakar Reddy of the YSRCP. In response to sources, after his defeat, Rao was eyeing a Rajya Sabha berth moreover the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) chairman’s publish, and shifted to the YSRCP in December 2019 after being neglected for each posts.
In June this yr, Rao’s daughter Beedha Madhuri allegedly drove her BMW automotive over a 22-year-old man sleeping on a pavement in Chennai. She subsequently surrendered earlier than an area police station and was granted bail.
For the third vacant Rajya Sabha seat from Andhra, the BJP has introduced R Krishnaiah. He too might be elected unopposed.
The principle Opposition occasion YSRCP has simply 11 MLAs within the 175-member Home and can’t win a Rajya Sabha seat.
