Odisha governor Raghubar Das on Monday met Union home minister Amit Shah at the latter’s residence in New Delhi even as suspense over the revival of the BJD-BJP alliance in the state continued.

Das posted the photos of his meeting with Shah on his X handle. Though Das maintained that it was a courtesy call, his visit fuelled speculation about the alliance.

Alliance talks had gained traction following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Odisha on March 5 following which state BJP leaders were summoned to Delhi. Senior BJD leaders also flew to the national capital.

The talks, however, appear to be stuck over the issue of seat sharing between the two parties that ran a coalition government in the state from 2000 to 2009. The coalition collapsed ahead of the 2009 elections ostensibly over seat sharing but the real reason was that the BJD had begun to feel that the BJP had become a liability in the wake of the Kandhamal communal riots of 2008, which hit the secular image of the government.

“The governor can meet the Union home minister any time. But the meeting at this juncture is bound to raise suspicion as the alliance issue is still alive,” a political analyst said.

BJP state unit president Manmohan Samal, who has consistently maintained that there has been no discussion about an alliance, has been summoned to Delhi. The BJP’s Odisha election in-charge Vijaypal Singh Tomar, who had also maintained that the alliance was never discussed, flew to Delhi from Bhubaneswar on Sunday night.

On Monday, a meeting of the state BJP leaders was held at the Delhi residence of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, known as the face of the party in Odisha. Sources said discussions were held on seat sharing and growing resentment among party cadres over the issue on the ground.

BJP leaders were tight-lipped about what transpired at the meeting. So far, state BJP leaders have been staunchly opposing any alliance with the BJD. They remain adamant about the party contesting the election on its own on all the 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats. Efforts by the top leaders to convince state leaders and cadres about the need for an alliance to realise the goal of winning 400 Lok Sabha seats have not yielded much response at the state level so far. There is complete silence in the BJD over the issue.

State Congress leaders, who had earlier organised a mock marriage between the BJD and the BJP, on Monday held a similar mock annaprasana ceremony symbolising the birth of kids after the “unholy” alliance between the two parties.

At the Lower PMG square, Congress leaders placing 10 dolls representing 10 children (read scams and scandals) born out of the BJP-BJD marriage in the state. These included mining and chit-fund scams, rising inflation, crime against women, exploitation of people by middlemen, irregularities in government schemes, fraudulent acquisition of tribal land and sale of government jobs.

Former chief secretary Bijay Patnaik, who joined the Congress last year, said: “It’s a satirical exposure of the BJD-BJP alliance. It’s an attempt to show how a series of scams have hit the state.”