Bhubaneswar, Sept. 24 -- The state's political temperature has risen by a few notches after Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday said that the BJP will win the forthcoming general election in Odisha without a Chief Ministerial face as the party did in Maharashtra and Haryana.

This statement of the Union Minister has triggered a political slugfest in the state.

Reacting to what the Union Minister said while replying to a question during a literary festival in Bhubaneswar on Saturday, the BJD on Sunday said there is none in the BJP to take on Naveen Patnaik.

"They (the BJP) have Baijayant Panda, Aparajita Sarangi, Jual Oram, Dharmendra Pradhan and Jaynarayan Mishra. But none can stand anywhere near Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik,...