With no single party getting a clear majority in the 2018 Karnataka assembly elections, Governor Vajubhai Vala, a former finance minister of Gujarat, is set to play a crucial role in deciding who will form the next government. Though it crossed the 100-seat mark, the BJP appears to have fallen short of the half-way mark in the Karnataka assembly. Back in 2001 Vala, 80, had vacated his Rajkot seat for Narendra Modi to pave the way for the latter’s first victory in an assembly election in Gujarat.

As governor, Vala could invite the single largest party -- the BJP -- to form the government. However, this practice was not followed in Manipur and Goa where the Congress was the single largest party.

Associated with the RSS since he was still in school, Vala joined the Jana Sangh (the earlier avatar of the BJP) as a young man. Rising in Rajkot’s politics, he became mayor in 1983.

Vala went on to contest assembly elections from Rajkot-II (later renamed Rajkot West), a seat he would win several times. He served as a Speaker in the Assembly and was appointed Karnataka governor in 2014 after Modi became Prime Minister.