Bhopal:
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has accused Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of using a picture of fields in Iran to demonstrate in an ad how barren land in his state has turned lush green during his tenure.
Madhya Pradesh votes for a new government next week and Mr Chouhan hopes to win a third straight term for his party, the BJP.
Ads listing his government's achievements have flooded newspapers and TV channels for days now; the latest series compare the BJP's work with that of the Congress government that Digvijaya Singh led in MP 10 years ago.
"Look what the BJP has done in 10 years. They have turned barren land to green. But that green field that they claim is in Madhya Pradesh is from an Iranian website. Such a big lie," Mr Singh said in Bhopal.
He also alleged that roads shown in some ads are actually pictures of roads in Spain and the US.
Mr Chouhan is yet to react to Mr Singh's accusation.
Last week he had sent a defamation notice to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, threatening to sue her Rs 10 crore if her party failed to retract ads that charged his family with corruption. The Congress had run ads in local newspapers that suggested Mr Chouhan's in-laws have landed important government contracts.
Mr Chouhan said in his notice that unless the Congress places new ads that apologise for that allegation, he will file a defamation lawsuit against the party's top leader.