Dom Mintoff is likely "to go back to the Labour Party" and be seen with Labour leader Alfred Sant before the April 12 general election, party sources said yesterday.
The meeting may take place this evening during the party's Freedom Day activity where they might lay flowers together at the Vittoriosa monument.
Sources close to the party said it was not clear whether the current and former leader would actually embrace each other as many would like to them to do, when they meet.
Several attempts have been made to reconcile Mr Mintoff with Dr Sant. The veteran Labour leader, who will be 87 this year, was very upset that Dr Sant had accused him of betraying Labour principles on the eve of the 1998 election after Mr Mintoff voted against the proposed Cottonera project in Parliament, despite Dr Sant's declaring it a vote of confidence.
The Sant government was defeated on that occasion and was forced to resign, making early elections inevitable. When it was held on September 5, 1998, Dr Sant's Labour Party suffered its worst defeat in 32 years.
Most of the reconciliation efforts have been made by Mr Mintoff's immediate successor as party leader and prime minister, Dr Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.
In many public meetings of his Maltese Arise Front over the past few weeks, Mr Mintoff has been making veiled and open attacks on the MLP leadership. He openly criticised the Labour Party's plan to hold a second referendum on EU membership and has often attacked the party for having abandoned its socialist principles.
He also defied Labour Whip Joe Mizzi to meet him so that Mr Mintoff would explain to him why he was not behaving as a true Labourite in parliament. Mr Mintoff had clashed with deputy leader Dr George Vella.
In one of the meetings, Mr Mintoff said the party to which he had given all his strength, had treated him worse than the British and the Church.
Mr Mintoff has repeatedly said that Dr Sant had to withdraw what he had said about him. But in meetings held last week he was speaking about the need to "forgive and forget" and has been urging his listeners to vote Labour on April 12.
"He is virtually begging to be let in again," one Labourite noted.
On his part, Dr Sant who hardly ever mentioned Mr Mintoff since 1998, last week spoke highly of him in connection with Freedom Day, which marks the departure of the last British forces on March 31, 1979.
However, some sources were doubtful that Mr Mintoff will ever return to the Labour Party, except on his own terms. "I have never seen him doing a U-turn and would be very surprised if he did one now", one said.
Political observers said the MLP electoral manifesto states that a State Council would be created to advise on the Constitution and its interpretation when the need arises. This could have been drafted so that Mr Mintoff could be offered a prestigious position if he went back.
On its part, the MLP wants Mr Mintoff to appear back within its fold to ensure that if there were any Mintoff supporters who were not voting Labour because of the rift, particularly in the Cottonera area where the MLP lost its fourth seat in 1998 by a few votes, they would win them back.
But there are mixed feelings in the MLP about the matter. Many feel that the few hundreds who turn up for Mr Mintoff's public meets vote Labour anyway.
Others dislike Mr Mintoff as they see him as the one responsible for the downfall of Dr Sant's government in 1998, while those who do not agree with the MLP feel that if Mr Mintoff went back to the party it would really be a case of "Old Labour".