New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS): Union minister Sachin Pilot was Monday appointed chief of the Congress's Rajasthan unit, a party statement said.

"Congress president Sonia Gandhi has appointed Sachin Pilot as president of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) with immediate effect," the statement said.

The 36-year-old Pilot is corporate affairs minister and a close associate of party vice president Rahul Gandhi. He replaces Chandrabhan, who was defeated in the assembly polls.

His appointment as PCC chief comes a month after the party's dismal performance in Rajasthan, where it could only secure 21 out of the 200 assembly seats in the state.

The son of late party leader and union minister Rajesh Pilot, he has been given the party mantle just three months before the Lok Sabha elections.

Pilot's ancestral village is Vaidpura in Noida and he belongs to the Bidhuri clan of Gurjar community. He is an MBA from Wharton Business School of the US.

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