Meet Vajubhai Vala, the man who will decide BJP vs Congress-JDS in Karnataka

Karnataka Assembly election 2018 was a political slugfest like no other. With months of preparations and weeks of campaigning eventually resulting in no party achieving a clear majority, Congress offered its support to JDS to keep BJP - the single-largest party after counting - at bay. Now, the ball is in the court of Karnataka Governor - Vajubhai Vala.

The spotlight is on Vala because it is he who will take the final call on whether the Congress-JDS alliance forms the government in the state or if BJP's CM candidate BS Yeddyurappa takes the mantle. As per past trends, he should choose the latter option but that is not what had happened in the case of Goa and Manipur where BJP entered into alliances to seize power.

 

It is upto the understanding of the Governor who he calls to form the government. It is upto him if he wants to call the single largest party or a coalition government: Subhash Kashyap, Constitutional expert #KarnatakaElections2018
(File pic) pic.twitter.com/QZYxOmwOfL — ANI (@ANI) May 15, 2018

 

Vala though is not new to politics and its nuances.

A member of RSS and one of the earliest members of the erstwhile Jan Sangh, Vala has been the Governor of Karnataka since 2014. He was previously speaker in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly and has also held several prominent posts in the BJP state government - holding the record for delivering the most state budget by any single finance minister. He is best known, however, for having snatched Rajkot West from Congress in the 1984 elections. He retained the seat all the way till 2002 and finally vacated it for Narendra Modi.

Known to be close to BJP and PM Modi, Vala will now have another extremely important political decision to make - allow Congress-JDS or invite BJP, the single-largest party in Karnataka.