Rama Pilot was active in politics some years before her husband joined the Congress in 1980 after quitting the Indian Air Force. She was an active member of the Youth Congress when she got married in 1974. Later, as her husband contested the Lok Sabha election and became a minister of state in Rajiv Gandhi and P V Narasimha Rao's governments, she entered the Rajasthan assembly as a legislator. After Rajesh Pilot's death, she contested and won the Lok Sabha seat from Dausa.