Mumbai: Congress president Sonia Gandhi today (Oct 11, 2004) lashed out at the Shiv Sena-BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) alliance saying it was spreading lies, making false promises and bent upon destroying its own tradition by attempting to break the society.

"Our tradition is to unite people and accept others wholeheartedly but they (BJP-Shiv Sena) were engaged in breaking the society," she told a mammoth gathering on the last leg of her campaigning for the October 13 Assembly polls in Maharashtra.

"I am not making any personal allegation... it is not in our culture," she said.

Referring to statement of former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee at a public rally yesterday (Oct 10, 2004) that NDA (National Democratic Alliance) Government had always supported Maharashtra, Sonia said that "it was a total lie" and said NDA had meted out step-motherly treatment not only to Maharashtra but also other Congress-ruled States.

For Congress, Sonia said, truth was uppermost in its values and tradition but the saffron alliance was engaged in spreading lies and making false promises.

The Congress president also warned the people to be careful of those parties, which called themselves secular but were hand in glove with BJP-Shiv Sena. Sonia said only Congress had the capacity to make the country strong and bring about unity and development and no other party could match Congress.

Harping on developments carried out by NCP (Nationalist Congress Party)-Congress during its five year rule in the State, she said, "I understand this is not enough and we shall carry this forward."