The Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s alliance partner in the state, on Sunday demanded that the next chief minister be from a tribal community, The Indian Express reported.

“The outcome of the elections, the thumping majority that the BJP and IPFT got, would have simply not been possible without the tribal vote,” IPFT President NC Debbarma said. “We won the elections because of our victory in the reserved Scheduled Tribe constituencies.”

He added that it would only be fair that the leader of the Assembly, and thus the chief minister, should be one of the candidates who won from a constituency reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

On Saturday, the Election Commission had declared BJP victorious in 35 of the 59 seats contested in the Assembly elections. Along with the eight constituencies the IPFT won, the saffron front has 43 seats in the House.

The IPFT leader has also demanded that his party be given a “respectable representation” in the Cabinet, PTI reported.

Media reports have been rife with speculation about Tripura BJP President Biplab Kumar Deb being named the next chief minister of the state.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Manik Sarkar was the chief minister of Tripura for 20 years. He resigned on Sunday, but will continue in office till the next government is sworn in.