Probably the tallest Gujjar leader from Rajasthan , Rajesh Pilot’s life is an incredible story — hailing from a farmer family, he rose to become a pilot in the Indian Air Force before joining politics. He died early, at 55, when his jeep collided head-on with a bus, around 50km from Jaipur, in 2000.Pilot is still remembered fondly by people in Dausa , the constituency which he had represented four times in the Lok Sabha . An ever-smiling Pilot was a trouble-shooter for the Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narsimha Rao government.Old-timers have good words to tell about Pilot. Came to Dausa as “an outsider” because he began his political career from Bharatpur in 1980, he won the hearts of the people in no time. No wonder, a huge statue of him on the campus of the Government Polytechnic College greets people in Dausa.Suresh Sharma, of Hingotiya village, admitted: “I am a BJP supporter. But I had voted for Rajesh Pilot .”Sitting on a roadside tea stall, Sharma added, “I voted for Pilot despite being a BJP supporter because he was a good man. He politics never involved caste or religion. He involved all sections of society and marched ahead.”Sharma’s sentiment was echoed by Raju Saini, another villager. “Rajesh Pilot mixed with everyone. If he saw a group of people sitting in a tea stall, he would stop by and talk to them. He was loved by all people, unlike today’s politicians who are trying to divide the society on the basis of caste and religion.”When asked about the legacy of Pilot who had held many important portfolios at the Centre, people in Dausa were unanimous in praising his contributions to this constituency. “He was instrumental in connecting Dausa with the rest of the state. The Ban-ganga Bridge was built on his initiative,” they said.

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