Sachin Pilot

Sachin Pilot(born 7 September 1977) is an Indian politician of Indian National Congress. Previously, he was the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Corporate Affairs and the Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology in the Government of India, as well as the Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan and the President of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee. He has represented the Tonk assembly constituency in Rajasthan as a member of the Congress party since 2018. Pilot was the youngest Indian person to be elected to the Indian Parliament.

Pilot previously served in the Indian Parliament representing the Rajasthan seats of Ajmer in 2009 and Dausa in 2004, becoming the youngest member of parliament when elected to the latter in 2004 at the age of 26. He was defeated in the 2014 Lok Sabha election from the Ajmer constituency. He was the Minister of Corporate Affairs in  second Manmohan Singh Ministry.

Early and Personal Life

Pilot was born to late Congress leader Rajesh Pilot and Rama Pilot. His father was an Indian Union minister. Vaidpura is his ancestral hamlet in Greater Noida (West), Uttar Pradesh. He attended Air Force Bal Bharati School in New Delhi and possesses a B.A. from St. Stephens College, University of Delhi, a diploma in marketing from I.M.T. Ghaziabad, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA. He worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation‘s Delhi Bureau for two years before joining the American multinational corporation General Motors.

On January 15, 2004, Pilot married Sara Abdullah. She is the daughter of Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leader and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah. They have two boys, Aaran and Vehaan, together. Rajesh Pilot, his father, was also a member of parliament and a union minister.

Career

Pilot was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Dausa constituency in 2004. He became India’s youngest MP at the age of 26. He won the seat of Ajmer in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections by defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party‘s Kiran Maheshwari by a margin of 76,596 votes. Pilot served on the Lok Sabha‘s Standing Committee on Home Affairs and the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s Consultative Committee. In 2012, he was appointed Minister of Corporate Affairs in Manmohan Singh’s second administration. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he was nominated from the Ajmer constituency again, but was beaten by Bharatiya Janata Party sitting MLA Sanwarlal Jat by a margin of 1,71,983 votes. He was elected President of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee in 2014.

Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan

Pilot won the Tonk seat in the 2018 Legislative Assembly elections, defeating Yunus Khan by 54,179 votes. It was expected that Pilot, who was a key figure in the Congress’s triumph in the state, would be appointed chief minister. On December 17, 2018, he was sworn in as Deputy chief Minister of Rajasthan, succeeding Ashok Gehlot.

2020 Political crisis

Pilot’s office published a statement on July 13, 2020, stating that the administration of chief minister Ashok Gehlot was in a minority. Pilot’s aide stated that he will not be joining the Bharatiya Janata Party. Pilot was fired as Deputy Chief Minister and Rajasthan Congress President by the Indian National Congress on July 14, 2020, for his rebellion against the party and its leadership. Following his revolt, there was speculation that he would join the BJP, similar to his former colleague Jyotiraditya Scindia, but on 15 July 2020, he denied the speculations, stating, “I am still a member of the Congress party.”

The Rajasthan Speaker, C.P. Joshi, issued summons to 19 dissident Congress MLAs, including Pilot, on 14 July 2020, after the Rajasthan Congress voted a resolution that they be disqualified from the state Assembly for failing to attend two Congress Legislature Party meetings despite a party whip. On July 17, 2020, Pilot filed a petition in the Rajasthan High Court challenging this notice. The High Court requested that the Speaker postpone any action on disqualification notices until July 21, 2020.

Army service

Pilot became the first Union minister of India to be commissioned as an officer in the Territorial Army on September 6, 2012, realising his dream to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the armed forces. As a Territorial Army officer, he is known as Captain Pilot. “This has been my desire to join the army for a very long time because I wanted to have my links with the armed forces, like my father and grandfather,” he stated after getting commissioned. I feel honoured to be a member of this family.”

Electoral history

External links

Sachin Pilot at Instagram 

Sachin Pilot at Twitter