New Delhi, Jan. 29: A brawl over a "forged" email has broken out in Punjab in the run-up to the Assembly elections.

The Congress today found itself at the receiving end when an email attributed to a senior leader and questioning Rahul Gandhi's decisions surfaced on social media.

The email purportedly sent by former Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa said Rahul's decisions to abruptly cut short his trip and attend an election event in Uttar Pradesh and the declaration of Captain Amarinder Singh as the candidate for chief minister had damaged the party's prospects. The mail also referred to intelligence report that gave the Aam Aadmi Party more than 73 of the 117 seats in Punjab.

Bajwa asserted that letter was fake and threatened legal action. A member of the Congress social media team, Gaurav Pandhi, pointed out that the email was forged. "This letter/email has been forged by (Delhi) chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's official secretary Bibhav Kumar as can be seen in the link mentioned below," Pandhi tweeted. The link, not visible without zooming, bore Bibhav Kumar's name.

Bibhav Kumar, Kejriwal's private secretary, denied his role, tweeting: "Have nothing to do with the email. Don't drag me into your internal feud. My name has been put in through Photoshop. Be ready for legal action."

Congress leaders were not ready to close the chapter. Amarinder himself retweeted Bajwa's denial, Pandhi's allegation and tweeted: "Kejriwal staying true to his character, stoops to new lows to fool the people of Punjab. Shame on him!"

The email was sent to the correct address of Rahul Gandhi's office, with a request to his aide Kaushal Vidyarthee, "Please hand this over to RG personally. Treat it as confidential." But Bajwa's name was spelt as "Pratap" instead of "Partap". Congress leaders wondered if a seasoned politician would himself wrongly spell his name.

Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken, who went on a tweeting spree on the subject, said in response to a question: "There are two obvious issues. One, who gains from the publicity of this email? Two, why only Bibhav Kumar's name appears in the link at the bottom of the letter? Even if Bajwa wrote this letter, who leaked it and for whose benefit? This is a clear AAP conspiracy."

Maken later held a media conference to make allegations of corruption against Kejriwal and threatened to reveal more after 24 hours.

But the intensified attack on Kejriwal also fuelled suggestions that the Congress is viewing the AAP as a potent threat in Punjab.