Narendra Modi to head both government and alliance: Sources

On the plus side, the party's runaway success in the election has brought a lot of new faces into the decision-making lower house of parliament.

Like outgoing finance minister P. Chidambaram, Jaitley is a corporate lawyer and a suave English-speaking politician seen as a moderate in the BJP. He would be a popular choice with investors.

Sources say that Modi has been consulting his confidantes Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Nitin Gadkari to decide on his cabinet, but no one knows for sure what he has in mind as of now.

Though there has been widespread speculations about the RSS' involvement and the leaders of the Hindutva outfit have also made their presence felt, they might not have a great say in the cabinet formation, if Modi's style of functioning is anything to go by.