The National Awakening Party (PKB), the largest party in East Java, is working with smaller party and former rival in the February presidential election, the United Development Party (PPP), to vet candidates to go up against the possible reelection bid of popular former governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa.

Some PPP executives, led by acting chair Muhamad Mardiono, visited the PKB central office in South Jakarta on Monday for a post-Idul Fitri gathering, where the two Muslim-based parties agreed to put aside their differences in the presidential race and cast their focus on the November regional elections.

“The PPP and the PKB have agreed to coordinate in the regional elections. There is great potential [for us] to work together and support one another in several regions,” PKB chair and unsuccessful vice presidential candidate Muhaimin Iskandar told the press following the meeting.

Asked by a reporter on which provinces the two parties were eyeing, Muhaimin said that East Java, the country’s second most populous province, took much of the focus in the PKB’s discussion with the PPP.

“We are close to reaching an agreement on nominating a candidate together [in East Java]. As regards to who that person is, it’s still a secret. It will be dangerous if [the name] leaks and Khofifah finds out about it,” Muhaimin said, laughing.

Khofifah once was a House of Representatives member from the PKB, but forged a separate path after the party backed her rival Saifullah Yusuf in the 2018 East Java gubernatorial election.

The PPP’s Mardiono, meanwhile, spoke of the two parties’ similar backgrounds as Muslim-based parties, saying that the PPP and the PKB are “inseparable” in their fight to further the welfare of Indonesian Muslims across the country.