Odisha BJP leaders on Wednesday met Union home minister Amit Shah at his residence in New Delhi as the suspense over a possible alliance between the BJP and the BJD continued.

Chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik has also called a meeting of his party leaders on Thursday, sources said.

The leaders huddled at Shah’s Delhi residence included Odisha BJP president Manmohan Samal, state election in-charge Vijaypal Singh Tomar, co-election-in-charge Lata Usendi and state BJP organisation secretary Manas Mohanty.

The meeting is significant considering that both Samal and Tomar had on Friday denied the possibility of an alliance between the two parties in the state. Samal had asserted that the BJP would fight on all the 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats of the state alone. On the other hand, the BJD leadership has maintained a stoic silence over the issue.

Sources said that the BJP high command is trying to convince state leaders that an alliance was in the interest of the party which has set itself the ambitious goal of winning more than 400 Lok Sabha seats this time. The party is hopeful of improving its 2019 Lok Sabha tally of 8 seats but for that, it would need the support of the BJD which had won 12 Lok Sabha seats last time and seems capable of repeating that performance if not improving upon it.