Congress leader and Rajasthan's former deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot is now single as his election nomination papers have revealed that he and his wife got divorced. It is the first time that Pilot's relationship status is coming to light and sparked speculations among the Congress cadres over bringing his marriage, that lasted for two decades, to an end. 

46-year-old Sachin Pilot is a Congress leader in Rajasthan and he has been dissenting against the Congress government led by Ashok Gehlot in the state. As Rajasthan is all set to go for the assembly polls later this month, the leaders and candidates are moving their nominations to contest in the election. Sachin Pilot will be contesting in the Tonk assembly constituency for which he furnished his election nomination. 

In the nomination papers, he has mentioned 'divorced' in the column under spouse. Sachin Pilot married Sara Abdullah in 2004 and they have two sons - Aaran and Vehaan. While Pilot mentioned he is divorced, he has named his two sons as dependents in his affidavit. Sara Abdullah is the daughter of veteran politician Farooq Abdullah, who was the former Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir and president of National Conference Party. 

Sara Abdullah's brother Omar Abdullah had also served as the Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir. Sachin Pilot and Sara Abdullah first met while pursuing their higher education at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in the United States in 2002. Both of them fell in an affair and decided to get married. However, both the families had opposed their marriage. 

Despite a strong opposition, Sachin Pilot and Sara Abdullah tied the knot in 2004 and when both the families shown their objections initially, they later relented and accepted the couple. They couple had two children and in 2018, during the previous assembly poll in Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot mentioned spouse name as Sara in his affidavit and Sara and two children attended Sachin Pilot's swearing-in ceremony as the deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan in Jaipur in 2018. 

However, for the past few years, rumours were doing rounds about their estrangement as Sara stayed in Jaipur once in a blue moon. Though there were several speculations, both of them remained tight-lipped about their dimming relationship and now, Sachin Pilot spilled the beans that he had got divorced from Sara Abdullah by admitting the break-up in the poll affidavit. 

Sara was raised in Kashmir till the age of 12 and she later left India for pursuing higher studies amidst the crisis-hit state. In a television interview, Sara acknowledged that politics runs in her blood and said, "I understand it sometimes. But sometimes I feel Sachin is a lot better with politics. He is a lot smarter with politics. I am still alive. He knows, he understands what someone saying something  really means. I still tend to take things to face value." The polls for the 300-member Rajasthan Assembly will be held on November 25 and the results will be announced on December 3.