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Rajesh Pilot

Squadron Leader Rajeshwar Prasad Bidhuri (10 February 1945 – 11 June 2000), also known as Rajesh Pilot (UK: ) was an Indian politician, a minister in the Government of India and a former Indian Air Force officer. He belonged to the Indian National Congress party and represented the Dausa constituency in Lok Sabha. His original name was Rajesh Bidhuri. Rajesh Pilot died on 11 June 2000 in a car crash near Jaipur.

Early life

Rajeshwar Prasad Bidhuri was born in Vaidpura village in present-day Greater Noida (West) and was a member of the Bidhuri Gurjar community.

Military career

He enlisted in the Indian Air Force. Rajeshwar Prasad, was commissioned in the General Duties (Pilot) branch of the Indian Air Force as a pilot officer on 29 October 1966. He was promoted to flying officer on 29 October 1967 and to flight lieutenant on 29 October 1971. He fought in the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 as a bomber pilot, flying a modified de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou. He was promoted to squadron leader on 29 October 1977. On 8 August 1978, he was seconded to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Local residents claimed that Prasad was one of the pilots, along with Suresh Kalmadi, who bombed Mizo insurgents in March 1966 during Mizo National Front uprising. This issue was mentioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Parliament in Lok Sabha in August 2023. Sachin Pilot, son of Rajesh Pilot denied his father's involvement.

In late 1979, Prasad resigned his commission while posted in Jaisalmer to enter politics, under the influence of his friend Rajiv Gandhi, who later became the Prime Minister of India.

In politics

He contested the 1980 Lok Sabha elections as an INC candidate from Bharatpur, changing his surname to Pilot at the same time. Pilot emerged as a prominent Gurjar leader in India. In his first election as a candidate, Pilot defeated the former queen of Bharatpur State.

On an official visit to the Netherlands in 1988, his Dutch counterpart, learning Pilot was a former IAF officer, arranged for him to fly a RNLAF F-16; the IAF subsequently invited Pilot to test a new MiG-29 following his return to India.

He sent Chandraswami to prison when he was the Internal Security Minister. Later, he lost the election for the post of Congress president to Sitaram Kesri, but remained in the front line of Congress leaders.

Rajesh Pilot died on 11 June 2000 in a car crash near Jaipur.

India Post has issued a commemorative postage stamp of ₹5.00 on 11 June 2008.

In New Delhi and Gurgaon, a road has been named in his honour. In Rewari, a roundabout was named after him.