A long-standing player in politics with a career dogged by controversies, Buta Singh may probably be the first governor to resign following a strong indictment by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that Buta Singh favoured a particular party in recommending the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly in March 2005.

No party had a majority after the February elections.

Buta Singh, who quit as Bihar governor on Thursday, was always in the news during his 15-month tenure in Bihar-- most of the time for the wrong reasons.

Though controversies and court cases are not new to Buta Singh, he has managed to stage a comeback almost every time, earning him the tag of a great survivor.

Essentially a Congressman who had held the powerful home portfolio in the Rajiv Gandhi government in the late 1980s, Buta Singh joined the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government as the communication minister after winning the 1998 Lok Sabha poll as an independent in Rajasthan.

His stay in the NDA ministry was short-lived and he had to step down after charges were framed against him in the Jain hawala case.

Buta Singh's stay at the Patna Raj Bhavan too was marred by rows, be it the appointments made before the assembly polls or recommending candidates for the state public service commission, the backward classes commission, the state minority commission, the 15-point programme implementation committee and the state nagrik parishad.