Guv Vajubhai Vela, the man to decide fate of BJP, Cong-JD(S) in Karnataka

Bengaluru: With the Karnataka election results becoming all the more crucial, all eyes are set on the governor who will take the most important decision which will decide who will form the government in the state.

Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala, a veteran politician was a former RSS man who joined BJP in Gujarat.

80-year-old Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala was appointed as the Governor of Karnataka in 2014.

If the Governor follows convention, he is expected to invite the single largest party to form the government, which is the BJP. But this was not the case in states like Goa and Manipur, where the Congress turned out to be the single largest party in the assembly elections held in 2017. The Governor may also call two parties who together have a majority.

Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala had vacated his assembly seat Rajkot-II when Prime Minister Narendra Modi contested his first state election from in Gujarat in 2001. He had won seven elections from the seat.

In the 2002 assembly polls, PM Modi moved to contest from the Maninagar seat and Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala was back to contesting from Rajkot West.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister in Gujarat, Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala was a minister in his government. As the Gujarat finance minister, Vala presented the state budget 18 times. He also served as the speaker of the Gujarat Assembly from December 2012 to August 2014.

Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala had joined the RSS during his school days.

In 1975, Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala was elected to the Rajkot Municipal Corporation and served as the Mayor in the 80s and 90s. During the emergency, he was imprisoned in Sabarmati jail for 11 months.