Modi confidant will take a call
Vajubhai Vala, a former RSS man and considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is set to play a crucial role in the Karnataka political scene after the Assembly election results were declared on Tuesday.
Vala, twice state president of the Gujarat BJP, who also served as Speaker of the Gujarat Assembly between 2012 and 2014, was appointed Governor of Karnataka in 2014 after the BJP came to power at the Centre.
He had famously vacated his Assembly seat (Rajkot -II) for Modi when the latter was contesting his first state election in Gujarat in 2001. A Rajput OBC by caste, Vala, is revered in the political circles of Gujarat as a tall leader in the Saurashtra region. He played a crucial role in cementing the BJP's position in the Patidar-dominated belt. It was Vala who literally turned Rajkot into a 'safe seat' for the BJP. The current chief minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani, too, represents that constituency.
Vala holds the record of presenting the Budget in the Gujarat Assembly 18 times as he served as finance minister for Gujarat for nine years and held other portfolios between 1998 and 2012. He started out from the Jan Sangh, the BJP's predecessor, and had grown close to Keshubhai Patel, then a powerful BJP leader in Gujarat. He was also imprisoned for eleven months during the Emergency. He served as the mayor of Rajkot Municipal Corporation in the 1990s.
“As Speaker of the Gujarat Assembly, Vala was largely neutral and rose above party lines when dealing with MLAs on the floor of the House. His witty remarks and digs at MLAs kept the House in splits. He is undoubtedly one of the most popular speakers in the Gujarat Assembly,” said a Congress leader in Gujarat.