Pilot, who filed his nomination papers from Tonk yesterday, has mentioned “divorced” in the column under spouse in his affidavit.
Pilot has been married to Sara Abdullah for the past 19 years. And they have two sons Aaran and Vehaan, whom Pilot has named as dependents in his affidavit.
His 2018 affidavit had spouse’s name as Sara, who along with his sons had attended his swearing in ceremony as deputy Chief Minister in Jaipur then.
Despite his high-decibel political life and many news-making moments in the period between 2018 and 2023, Pilot’s divorce remained strictly confidential. Although there were some rumours about their estrangement, as Sara hardly stayed in Jaipur, nothing about their divorce was known.
Pilot and Sara had met in London while in college and came close during those years. They were also family friends. Sara is the daughter of Farooq Abdullah who was the president of National Conference Party of Jammu and Kashmir. He was the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir twice. Her brother Omar Abdullah, also a politician, has been the chief minister of the state.
There was opposition from both families but both Sara and Pilot decided to go ahead and get married. They tied the knot in 2004. Initially, the families were reluctant to accept the relationship but Pilot’s family later relented. Even Sara’s family came around later.
Sara is supposed to be working in the NGO sector in Delhi. She grew up in Kashmir till the age 12 and later sent to England as unrest and chaos engulfed Kashmir.
Although acknowledging politics runs in her blood. Sara in one of her interviews on television, had said she doesn’t understand politics much. “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 naive. He knows, he understands what someone saying something really means. I still tend to take things on face value.”
Published 01 November 2023, 05:40 IST