Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Tuesday lashed out at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly wasting taxpayers' money on newspaper advertisements in an "extravagant and lavish way".
"You (Kejriwal) are abusing your position and misusing public money to promote and project yourself as someone who actually you are not," Mr Amarinder said in a statement in Chandigarh.
"Kejriwal is suffering from chronic megalomaniac obsessions," the statement added, referring to Mr Kejriwal's letter to the Prime Minister which was published in full page advertisements in newspapers in Punjab on Monday.
Questioning the Aam Aadmi Party leader's credentials, the former Punjab Chief Minister alleged, "This is no less than cheating and fraud with the people of Delhi whose money is being wasted in advertisements in Punjab with an eye on the elections."
Questioning the very purpose of publishing a letter to the Prime Minister, he said, "It was more aimed at scoring some brownie points with the people of Punjab on the eve of elections than asserting your position with the Prime Minister who would have read your letter in any case."
"It is natural for a Prime Minister to read a letter written to him by a chief minister. So, where was the need to waste public money using newspapers with full page advertisements as the medium," the statement added.
"More than seeking justice for the 1984 (anti-Sikh riots) victims, as he claims, which he could have done in a better way without wasting public money and newsprint space, Kejriwal is trying to pronounce and proclaim himself as the new messiah as if ordained by a divine decree," the Punjab Congress chief said.
The AAP-led Delhi government today published newspaper advertisements in Punjab showing a letter written by Mr Kejriwal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi pertaining to the Centre's Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the 1984 riots.
Punjab is scheduled to go to Assembly polls in 2017.
