New Delhi/Patna: Tribal-dominated Jharkhand, where the BJP along with its ally the AJSU got a simple majority, could see a non-tribal chief minister for the first time since its creation in 2000.

The BJP parliamentary board will meet on Wednesday to take a call on who will be the CM. BJP’s national vice-president Raghubar Das is seen as the frontrunner for the post. Another name doing the rounds is of Saryu Rai, also a non-tribal. Mr Das fought from Jamshedpur East and Saryu Rai from Jamshedpur West.

The BJP won 37 of the 72 seats it had contested in the 81-member Assembly, while the All Jharkhand Students Union won five seats out of the eight that it contested. In the last election, the BJP had won 18 seats. Surprisingly, senior BJP leader and former CM Arjun Munda, a tribal, who was one of the contenders for the chief ministership, lost.

The JMM won 19 seats and the JVM bagged eight. The Congress managed only five seats