Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala (born 23 January 1937) is an Indian statesman who was the 18th Governor of Karnataka from 1 September 2014 to 6 July 2021. He is also the longest serving Governor for Karnataka after Khurshed Alam Khan. Vajubhai served as the Speaker of the

Gujarat Legislative Assembly Gujarat Legislative Assembly or Gujarat Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Gujarat, in the state capital Gandhinagar. Presently, 182 members of the Legislative Assembly are directly elected from single-member c ...

from 2012 to 2014. He is still a member of

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...

. He served as a Cabinet Minister in the

Government of Gujarat The Government of Gujarat, also known as Gujarat Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Gujarat and its 33 districts. It consists of an executive of the legislators appointed by the Governor of Gujarat, a judiciar ...

, holding various portfolios, such as finance, labour and employment, from 1997 to 2012. He was elected to Gujarat Legislative Assembly from Rajkot West constituency multiple times.

Career

Vala started his political career at the

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family ...

and subsequently joined Jan Sangh in 1971. He was jailed for eleven months during the emergency in 1975. He was the Mayor of Rajkot in the 1980s. Later he contested state assembly elections from Rajkot and served as the Cabinet Minister holding finance, revenue portfolios from 1998 to 2012. He was the finance minister for two terms. He holds the record of presenting budget in

; 18 times as the finance minister. He was elected as the Speaker of assembly in December 2012 and served till August 2014. He was appointed as the Governor of Karnataka in September 2014. Vala has also been closely associated with Rajkot Nagarik Sahakari Bank, where he planned, organised and developed the banking service. He was also the Chairman of the bank for five years on-and-off during 1975-90 period.

Controversy

Vala was involved in a controversy during the

2018 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election The 2018 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election was held on 12 May 2018 in 222 constituencies to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. The election was postponed in Jayanagar and Rajarajeshwari Nagar, following the death of the MLA B. N. Vij ...

s. He invited the largest party,

to form the government and not the largest post poll alliance consisting of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

and the Janata Dal (Secular). He also gave the new Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa 15 days to prove his majority in the house. His decision was vehemently opposed by all non-BJP alliance parties in the nation, and the INC approached the Supreme Court in this matter. Supreme court decreed that in case when no coalition/party has clear majority, the governor of the state has the legal power to decide who forms the government in that state. But, the same court shortened the 15 day time limit given by Vala to Yeddyurappa to prove majority, into just 3 days, and also mandated that the house proceeding including vote should be telecast live. Yeddyurappa resigned after the house convened, citing that he could not muster the majority. Kumaraswamy of Janata Dal was invited to become the new Chief Minister. However, 14 months later, Kumaraswamy's government collapsed. Later Yeddyurappa easily managed to sail through with 106 BJP MLAs.

References

External links

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Gujarat government
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vala, Vajubhai 1937 births Living people Governors of Karnataka State cabinet ministers of Gujarat Mayors of places in Gujarat Ahmedabad municipal councillors Speakers of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly People from Rajkot Indians imprisoned during the Emergency (India) Gujarat MLAs 1995–1998 Gujarat MLAs 1998–2002 Gujarat MLAs 2002–2007 Gujarat MLAs 2007–2012 Gujarat MLAs 2012–2017 Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Gujarat