Before Kalla declared himself as the running mate for Joko Widodo in the 2014 presidential election, a 2012 poll placed his popularity among likely voters in the top three contenders for the presidency[1] and ahead of his own party's nominee Aburizal Bakrie.

[4] He showed interest in a political career, becoming a member of the Regional People's Representative Council (DPRD) and chairman of the Youth Division of Golkar when it was still organised under a Joint Secretariat (Sekretariat Bersama or Sekber) format.

NV Hadji Kalla expanded from the export-import trading business into other sectors (hotels, infrastructure construction, car dealerships, aerobridges, shipping, real estate, transportation, a shrimp farm, oil palm, and telecommunications).

[6] Kalla returned to active politics in 1987 when he was appointed to the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) as a regional representative for South Sulawesi.

[7] When Kyai Haji Abdurrahman Wahid (often known as Gus Dur) was elected as president by the MPR in 1999, Kalla was included in the cabinet and became Minister of Industry and Trade.

On 12 February 2002, Kalla, together with Coordinating Minister of Politics and Society Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, managed to solve a similar conflict on Ambon and Molucca through a second Malino Declaration.

[11] Now a popular figure for assisting with the peace process in Sulawesi, Kalla considered putting himself forward as a candidate in the 2004 presidential elections.

Led by Fahmi Idris and ignoring the party line, pro-Kalla elements in Golkar declared their support for Kalla and Yudhoyono.

PD with all of its coalition partners were still too weak to contend with the legislative muscles of Golkar and PDI-P who now intended to play the role of opposition.

With a National Congress to be held in December 2004, Yudhoyono and Kalla had originally backed head of DPR Agung Laksono to become Golkar Chairman.

[18] The suggestion seemed to gain momentum when Kalla only showed up for one video conference and then spent the rest of the time taking care of Golkar matters.

Although things calmed down, especially with Golkar gaining another cabinet position in the reshuffle, the alleged rivalry surfaced again in October 2006 when Yudhoyono established the Presidential Work Unit for the Organization of Reform Program (UKP3R).

[20][21] In 2009 Kalla ran in the Indonesian presidential election with former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Wiranto as his running mate, finishing third with 12.4% of the vote.

During a dedication ceremony of the Indonesian Red Cross headquarters in the Riau province on 3 February 2012 Kalla stated his willingness to run in the presidential election in 2014 should he receive sufficient public support.

[24] Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP)'s presidential candidate Joko Widodo announced Jusuf Kalla as his vice-presidential running mate at Gedung Juang, Jakarta, on 19 May 2014.

"[26] During the 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis in September, Kalla restated a similar position, while further questioning "why should there be an apology" from Indonesia.

[32] In February 2016, Kalla told the United Nations Development Programme not to finance or carry out an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community program in Indonesia.

Kalla previously stated opposition to LGBT campaigns in Indonesia, which he considered at that point as deviating from social values.

[35] The Indonesian House had rejected the dual agreement in 2013 as "not favourable to Indonesia", maintaining that "extradition and defence are two separate issues".

[36] In December 2018, the issue of China's Xinjiang internment camps and human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority was brought up in parliament.

[38] [39] Apart from that, he said that Chinese-Indonesians are reluctant to become civil servants because of low salaries, while in reality the opportunity for Chinese have been long limited by the government, that is questioned by a journalist.

[43] As the vice president of Indonesia, Kalla is automatically bestowed the highest class of six out of seven civilian Star Decorations (Indonesian: Tanda Kehormatan Bintang), namely:[44]