| “ | Our true king has been silenced. The one you recognize is a traitor and a Separatist minion. | „ |
| ~ Saw Gerrera on Sanjay Rash |
Sanjay Rash is a minor antagonist in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars appearing as the main antagonist of the Onderon Arc in season five. He was a human male and aristocrat from the Inner Rim world of Onderon and seized power by becoming king of the planet by aligning himself with the Confederacy of Independent Systems thus earning their military support.
As King of Onderon, Rash had his planet align with the Confederacy and subjected it to a military occupation by the Separatist Droid Army which angered enough citizens that they formed a resistence movement and waged an insurgency in order to remove Rash from power. Desperate to retain his position as King of Onderon, Rash would sell his planet's sovereignty to them in exchange for his position being secured.
History
Taking over Onderon
During the Clone Wars, Rash was an aristocrat on the planet of Onderon in the Inner Rim and the world was ruled by King Ramsis Dendup who was preasured into either siding with the Galactic Republic or the Confederacy of Independent Systems. He chose neither and to remain neutral, but the Separatist Alliance had other plans and so invaded the world and forced Dendup to abdicate and was succeeded by Rash who supported the Separatists. Rash would be installed as King of Onderon, but was ultimately a proxy for Count Dooku, and Dendup was imprisoned in the garden of the Royal Palace.
Growing rebellion
Not long after Rash took over as king, the Separatist Alliance occupied Onderon and a resistence movement was formed which sought to restore Dendup and overthrow Rash's pro-Separatist government. The Onderon rebels eventually contacted the Jedi Council and managed to get the support of the Republic, but only through covert training and advisors and no ground troops or any intervention. Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker along with Padawan Ahsoka Tano and Clone Captain Rex were sent to help train the Onderon Rebels and arrived at one of their outposts in the jungles which was spotted by a probe droid and attacked by Separatist troops.
The attack was repulsed and the rebels would eventually sneak into the capital city of Iziz and after setting up a secret base, they would attack multiple droid patrols in the city and even attack the royal carriage thinking Rash was in it. Angered by this, the false king would order Dendup to be summoned into the throne room where he demanded the dethroned monarch to call off the attacks having blamed him for orchestrating the rebel attacks despite Dendup having no contact with the outside world. That same night, the rebels staged an attack on the city's power generator and successfully destroyed it leaving the droids in the dark, unable to recharge and vulnerable to attacks. Following the attack, Sanjay Rash contacted Dooku and requested reinforcements, a request that was granted along with a new commanding officer, General Kalani.
Reinforcements
Kalani would soon arrive on Onderon with fresh Separatist reinforcements who continued their crackdown on Iziz to tighten their grip on Onderon. Not long after Kalani arrived, a droid patrol was ambushed and destroyed so Steela Gerrera, Leader of the Onderon Rebels, could send a message to the Onderonian people encouraging them to rise up and take back Onderon. After the message was sent, Rash was in the palace where General Tandin, Head of the Royal Onderon Militia, identified Steela and her bother Saw as leaders of the rebellion. He then suggested that the Royal Onderon Militia take over security operations thinking it would encourage the rebels to negotiate, but Kalani refused believing that the militia was compromised by sympathizers to the rebels.
At this point Rash was getting increasingly more and more frustrated and eventually had Dendup summoned where he once more demanded that he call off the rebel attacks, but he refused once more stating that he's no longer the king and has no control over the rebels. Furious, Rash had Dendup taken back to his cell and planned his execution for the next day. The night before the execution, Saw Gerrera broke into the palace and attempted to free Dendup, but was caught and captured. The next day both men were staged for execution and were brought before the front of the palace in front of a large audience.
