The Congress will enter the 2027 race with a troubled past – a history of internal rifts and public feuds that ensured it an exit from power and placed Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party firmly in the driving seat. Now, with Sachin Pilot now sent to manage another round of differences ahead of 2027, the party is trying to ensure history does not repeat itself.
Charanjit Singh Channi replaced him. Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had been central to the challenge against Singh, found himself disagreeing with the new government as well and the change at the top ultimately failed to produce stability. Sidhu resigned as the Punjab Congress president within days of Channi forming his government. The state unit has been witnessing differences involving Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and leaders associated with former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi. Senior figures have voiced dissatisfaction, and the high command has had to engage directly with the situation. There is an irony in the Congress’s choice. It has sent to Punjab a politician who spent years at the centre of one of the party’s most visible internal power struggles. Pilot also held important portfolios, including Public Works, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj. But the arrangement gradually led to two political centres in Rajasthan. Now the roles have switched. His father, Rajesh Pilot, was a Union minister, six-time Member of Parliament and an important figure in the national Congress. He operated in a generation that included major Punjab leaders such as Balram Jakhar and Buta Singh. That legacy may offer Sachin Pilot familiarity and goodwill within older Congress networks. Pilot also has his own history of interaction with Punjab leaders.
In September 2021, with barely five months left before the assembly election, an internal revolt led to Captain Amarinder Singh resigning as Chief Minister. After the Congress won Rajasthan in 2018, Ashok Gehlot became Chief Minister and Pilot Deputy Chief Minister. He was present when Amarinder took oath as Chief Minister in 2017.
In April 2023, when Pilot announced a fast over what he argued was the Gehlot government’s failure to act on corruption allegations against the previous BJP regime, Randhawa publicly described the proposed protest as contrary to party interests and an “anti-party activity”. Yet the same Congress statement also described Pilot as an “indisputable asset” and called for dialogue. During Pilot’s Rajasthan rebellion in 2020, then Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar publicly advised younger politicians that politics was “not fast food” and that leaders sometimes had to wait for their turn.
Pilot lost both the Deputy Chief Minister’s position and the Rajasthan Congress presidency. Pilot later complained that he was being denied sufficient authority and alleged that bureaucrats were not responding adequately to him. In 2020, the confrontation finally burst into the open.
