The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to pick Delhi’s Chief Minister from the pool of MLAs-elect who have made it to the Assembly. Indicating this, a senior national BJP leader told The Hindu on Thursday said the party is planning to announce its Chief Ministerial pick once Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes back from his foreign trip on February 17. The party is also not inclined towards naming any Deputy Chief Minister for the national capital, the leader said.

The BJP defeated the Aam Aadmi Party in the election last week by winning 48 of the 70 seats with the erstwhile ruling party picking up the rest.

The party has a series of contenders for the post of CM. Among front runners are Parvesh Sahib Singh, who defeated AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal in New Delhi constituency; Satish Upadhyay, a former Delhi BJP president and MLA-elect from Malviya Nagar; and Vijender Gupta, MLA-elect from Rohini and Leader of Opposition in the previous Assembly.

In the past, the BJP has come up with surprise CM choices in States like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand. If the party were to do an encore in Delhi, a Dalit or a woman face or a Purvanchali CM in view of the upcoming State poll in Bihar are also in the realm of possibility.