He hogged the limelight twice. First in 2007 in the run-up to the state Assembly elections and then a few days before the Lok Sabha elections. On both the occasions, Congress leader Rohit Sabharwal had burnt the effigies of his party leaders.

Prior to the Assembly elections in 2007, Sabharwal had burnt the effigy of the then Punjab Cabinet minister Harnam Dass Johar. The Punjab Youth Congress general secretary, Sabharwal, was unhappy with the demeanour of the minister towards his party workers. “Johar used to ignore some of the party workers and as a result I along with some others party workers had burnt his effigy. Johar later threatened me and I wrote a letter to the President saying that I will sit on a fast unto death. But as Assembly elections were round the corner, Johar came to my office and apologised," Sabharwal recalls.

This year again, Sabharwal was in news for burning the effigy of party candidate and now Ludhiana MP Manish Tewari for which he was expelled from the party. The second time, Sabharwal resorted to the step at the party’s manifesto-releasing event where Tewari had stated that the 1992 government had been formed by default. Though Tewari had made these comments in another context, it had caused a wide resentment in a section of his party. This made Sabharwal, who was the organising secretary of the party, to burn Tewari's effigy along with some of his supporters.

But recently Sabharwal has not only been reinstated in the party but has also been given a more important post of secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC). "With my reinstatement, my stand has got substantiated that I did not work against the party," Sabharwal beams.