In what could be perceived as revival of ties between the two parties, Bharatiya Janata Party's posterboy and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi [Images] had a luncheon meeting with All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalithaa on Monday.

Party sources said both leaders discussed the present political situation and shared issues of common perspective.

The hour-long meeting at Poes Garden (Jayalalithaa's residence) between the two leaders, in which former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also participated, is being seen in political circles as the beginning of the realignment of political forces ahead of Lok Sabha polls next year.

Buoyed by the success in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, where the vote-bank of Congress had severely dented, along with the Left parties' threat of withdrawing support to the Congress-led UPA government over the Indo-US nuclear deal and its talks of a third front at the national level, the BJP foresees a mid-term polls to the Lok Sabha and has already entered into the poll-mode.

As a first step towards strengthening the National Democratic Alliance in the backdrop of the current political situation, the BJP has extended an olive branch to Jayalalitha during the 'Pongal' lunch hosted by her to Modi and Prasad.

The fact that both parties share common views on terrorism, Ram Sethu and the LTTE, and Jayalalithaa's glowing tributes to Modi on his victory in the Gujarat polls, were enough indications for the BJP to bury the hatchet of 1998 and go in for a reunion.

Image: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi presents a bouquet to AIADMK Supremo J Jayalalithaa at her residence in Chennai on Monday

Photograph: PTI