Bhubaneswar: The BJD and the BJP have picked up hockey sticks to score brownie points over the Men's Hockey World League Final that will begin here on December 1.

To corner credit for hosting the mega hockey tournament, the archrivals have launched a poster war here to highlight their leaders in the backdrop of the event.

While the BJP has come up with posters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi wishing success to the participating teams, the BJD hoardings have chief minister Naveen Patnaik doing the same.

The BJP had virtually let the Naveen government steal the show when it had boycotted the 22nd Asian Athletics Championship held here in July.

Unwilling to repeat the "mistake", the BJP has plastered the city with the Prime Minister's posters welcoming the participants. The BJP posters far outnumber the ones that have Naveen on it. Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan's pictures, too, appear in the posters that have huge blow-ups of Modi. The posters have been sponsored by the ONGC, the official partner of Hockey India.

The state government, on the other hand, has placed big cut-outs of Naveen near the Kalinga Stadium, which is the venue for the 10-day international event. The government proposes to come up with more cut outs and posters over the next three days, an official source indicated.

BJD spokesperson Samir Dash said: "The BJP had boycotted the Asian Athletic Championship hoping that the state government will not be able to organise it within 90 days. After its spectacular success, the BJP has realised its mistake and this time they also want to be in spotlight."

However, sports minister Chandra Sarathi Behera had a different take on the poster war. "It's a good sign that everyone, including the BJP, is supporting the hockey league. We have no objection to the Prime Minister's posters. We hope the BJP leaders would come to the stadium and cheer the teams."

BJP spokesperson Sajjan Sharma said: "The BJP always favours promoting sports. People and players will be happy to see the posters of the Prime Minister. But we don't believe in spending public funds to promote the BJD. They should refrain from this. We had not boycotted the 22nd Asian Athletics Championship. Our leaders could not make it due to other engagements."