New Delhi: The BJP’s choice of new chief ministers for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh remained under wraps, indicating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah weighed various options.

The BJP parliamentary board that met on Monday evening decided to despatch Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and party general secretary Saroj Pandey as observers for the selection of the chief minister in Gujarat. Similarly, Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Narendra Singh Tomar will be the party’s observers for Himachal Pradesh.

During the campaign, Shah had said that incumbent chief minister Vijay Rupani is the party’s face in Gujarat.

With the dip in the BJP’s tally, the party high command was stated to be on the lookout for a new face, who could help in winning back the support of Patidars while retaining the support of the Other Backward Classes (OBC).

In Himachal Pradesh, its chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal lost the election. He was made the chief ministerial face only nine days before the polls.

A Rajput leader, Dhumal was fielded from Sujanpur, which was not a constituency of his choice. There was talk that Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda may eventually be anmed CM if the BJP comes to power.

With Dhumal’s defeat, besides Nadda, other names making rounds included those of Ajay Jamwal, who comes from the RSS ranks, and party’s Seraj MLA Jai Ram Thakur.