Five lesser known facts about Karnataka Governor who had vacated his assembly seat for Modi

After Modi became prime minister in 2014, Vala was one of the contenders for the post of chief minister of Gujarat, but the party chose Anandiben Patel.

Image: ANI

New Delhi: After the BJP and Cong-JDS alliance are in race to form government in Karnataka, all eyes are Governor Vajubhai Vala. He is the man of utmost importance now for all the power –contenders in Karnataka, as his is going to be the decisive role. Here are five lesser known facts about Vala:

• Vala had once vacated his assembly seat in Gujarat to enable the then first time chief minister Narendra Modi to contest his maiden election in 2001. As Modi was not an MLA at that time he had to win an election in six months. Vala, who was holding Rajkot (West) which was considered one of the safest seat for BJP, offered his seat for Modi which he won to make a debut in the Assembly.
• Vala, who has earned a reputation of a crisis manager in the Gujarat unit of the BJP, was made state party chief after the rebellion by Shankarsinh Vaghela in the mid-90s that resulted in the fall of Keshubhai Patel government.
• He was the number two under Modi from 2002 to 2012 as finance minister of the state. Earlier under Keshubhai Patel too, he enjoyed a similar position.
• Vala started his political innings with the RSS from his home town of Rajkot. He then joined Jan Sangh and had also gone to jail during Emergency.
• When he was Mayor of Rajkot City in 1980s, the area faced acute water shortage due to deficient rains.He had made arrangements for bringing water by train for the city's residents, which was perhaps for the first time that a train was used for transportation of water in the country. He instantly became famous as "paniwala mayor".

After Modi became prime minister in 2014, Vala was one of the contenders for the post of chief minister of Gujarat, but the party chose Anandiben Patel. Later, he was appointed Governor of Karnataka.