As the state of Rajasthan goes into polls by the end of 2023 followed by General Elections in 2024, Sachin Pilot holds much importance within the Congress party and the national politics as well. Pilot, who worked as the Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan, from 2018 to 2020, has also been the talk of the town for his critical stance against his own party government in Rajasthan. The continuing tussle between Pilot and CM Ashok Gehlot is threatening to cast a shadow on the party’s election efforts in the state. The Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (RPCC) has been in a state of turmoil since July 2020, when Pilot staged a revolt seeking a leadership change in the state. From ticket distribution before the 2018 polls, to CM and ministerial posts later, to portfolios, to foiled rebellions, to unchecked defiance – the saga of the Rajasthan Congress has been an epitome of unresolved tussle.
After months of bickering and bitter exchanges, the Congress high command on May 30 managed to make both Gehlot and his bete noire Pilot sit together but could not announce a peace formula despite claiming that both of them have “unitedly and unanimously” agreed to a “proposal”.
Pilot’s supporters say that unlike other young guns from political dynasties in the Congress, he had earned his right to the CM job. The party sent him to Rajasthan as PCC president after the 2013 Assembly elections had reduced the Congress to just 21 seats in the 200-member House – its worst performance ever.
The fact that the Congress crossed the half-way mark in the 2018 polls, winning 100 of the 195 seats it contested, was largely a result of Pilot’s toils, with the then PCC chief hunkering down in the state for five years, re-building the party.
To be sidelined for Gehlot then, with the Congress typically trying to ride both boats, had come as a bitter pill for Pilot.
His detractors, however, say that the game was won fair and square by the older leader, who continues to command the loyalty of most of the party MLAs. For many of them, Pilot is standoffish and difficult to work with, unlike the ever-smiling, ever-assuring and all-pleasing Gehlot.
The son of the late Rajesh Pilot, who himself owed his political presence to proximity to Rajiv Gandhi, Sachin Pilot studied at Delhi University’s St Stephens College, followed by Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, and worked as an intern at the BBC and at General Motors.
It was Rajesh Pilot’s death in a road accident in 2000 that pushed the junior Pilot into politics. After Rajesh Pilot’s death, the Dausa Lok Sabha seat passed on to his wife Rama, who represented it between 2001 and 2004.
Sachin Pilot’s win from Dausa in his first-ever election in 2004, at the age of 26, made the youngest ever Lok Sabha MP of the country. The same year, he married Sara Pilot, the daughter of Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah and sister of Omar Abdullah, with whom he went on to have two sons.
The wedding, which saw initial resistance from the Abdullahs, further burnished Pilot’s credentials. He is also a Captain in the Territorial Army personnel, with his Twitter display photo featuring him dressed in uniform.
Meanwhile, Pilot kept rising within the Congress. After he won from Dausa a second time, in 2009, he was made Union Minister of State, Communications and Information Technology, a position he held till October 2012. Following a Cabinet reshuffle by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Pilot was promoted to Union MoS (Independent Charge), Corporate Affairs.
It was against this backdrop, and the Congress’s dispiriting performance in the 2013 Rajasthan Assembly elections, that the party sent Pilot to shore up its fortunes in the state. The 2013 Assembly debacle was followed by the loss of all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state to the BJP in 2014.
However, what was supposed to be the crowning jewel in his political career has turned out to be one built of thorns. With the Congress truncated at the Centre, the only course forward for Pilot is in Rajasthan, where Gehlot has not let him grow.
Apart from the MLAs supporting him, Gehlot’s caste – OBC Mali – works in his favour. Pilot is a Gujjar. Since being pipped to the post in 2018, all the news concerning Pilot has been about him making thwarted attempts to become CM.
Sachin Pilot, former union minister and a prominent face of the Congress party, has recently been appointed senior observer for the Kerala assembly elections, one of the most crucial states for the main Opposition party.
After deliberations, Congress President Rahul Gandhi has picked Ashok Gehlot for the post of Rajasthan Chief Minister. Sachin Pilot, who fought for the position, will be made deputy Chief Minister of the state.
It was a close contest in both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh between the Congress and BJP. But the grand old party did get a few things right which helped it get ahead of the bump in both the states. Manoj CG breaks it down.
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