Prabowo, now a leading frontrunner in the latest public opinion poll, said on Monday that he had been invited to meet with Puan when the two bumped into each other and had a chat during the celebration of the 77th anniversary of the Air Force on Sunday.

“She [at the time] asked to have a meeting," Prabowo said. "She said that maybe [a meeting] will be arranged sometime soon. I think all parties are open to having a talk.”

Leaders of five pro-government parties announced last week they were considering stitching together a big-tent alliance by merging the Golkar Party-led United Indonesia Coalition (KIB) and the Gerindra-led Great Indonesia Awakening Coalition (KKIR), to back a pro-government candidate to run in the 2024 presidential race.

The KIB’s National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Zulkifli Hassan, a close ally of President Joko  “Jokowi” Widodo, claimed on Saturday that the formation of the grand alliance was “under the command [and] orchestration of Jokowi”. Zulkifli added that he himself “was ready to do anything, go here and there, to knit the alliance together, so a solid front of the ‘middle way’ can become a reality”.

Read also: Party leaders agree on grand alliance for 2024 election: Prabowo

The absence of the PDI-P, of which Jokowi is a member, during last week’s announcement, however, had raised speculation that the initiative would isolate the ruling party after what appears to be a clash between Jokowi and his party over Israeli participation in the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup, which led to Indonesia’s shock removal as host of the global soccer event.