Amid growing signs of estranged partners Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP getting back together, political circles in Delhi are abuzz with the talk of a likely meeting that took place between top leaders of the two parties in New Delhi early this week.A source told The Tribune that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s point person for Punjab CR Patil met with SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal in the capital a night before he arrived in Punjab after his long recuperation following the near-fatal attack at Nanded. Badal returned to Punjab on August 25.None of the two sides — SAD or the BJP — confirmed the Patil-Sukhbir meeting.The source, who mentioned that the two met, said broad discussions happened on a potential seat-sharing agreement, with the SAD (Punar Surjit) factor also weighing on the deliberations.It remains to be seen when and how Akali Dal stalwarts, currently members of SAD’s splinter reformist group, are brought into the wider election discussions.These veterans include Bibi Jagir Kaur, Prem Singh Chandumajra and Gurpartap Singh Wadala who had quit the SAD in 2025.According to data on the table, the BJP performed better than SAD in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections — a chip the saffron party would deploy in negotiations. BJP’s vote share in the last General Election was 18.5 per cent as against SAD’s 13.5 per cent — a statistic that, sources say, adds weight to the need for a SAD-BJP alliance.However, sources on the SAD side point out that negotiations, as and when they mature, will be based on the outcomes of three recent elections — 2022 Assembly elections, 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the recent rural and urban local body elections in the state.With many wrinkles to be ironed out, both parties are learnt to have decided to boost cadre strength across all 117 seats and expand their political outreach wherever possible.BJP national general secretary BL Santhosh has already told the BJP unit in the state that the party will prepare for and fight on all 117 seats.The BJP is this time clear that it will not settle for a weak bargain and will no longer be in a “younger brother” role should an alliance with SAD mature.The BJP would want a far greater share of Assembly seats to contest in an alliance arrangement this time, sources said.The challenge is — how many of the seats will SAD be willing to forgo. That give and take is set to take time, said a source.