Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday lashed out at the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in Maharashtra, saying it is spreading lies, making false promises and is bent upon breaking the society.

"Our tradition is to unite people and accept others wholeheartedly, but they [the BJP-Shiv Sena] are engaged in breaking the society," she told a gathering in Bhiwandi on the last leg of her campaign tour in Maharashtra.

Referring to a statement of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at a public rally on Sunday that his National Democratic Alliance government had supported Maharashtra, Sonia said: "It is a total lie...the NDA government had
meted out step-motherly treatment not only to Maharashtra, but also to other Congress ruled states."

The Congress chief, without referring to the Bahujan Samaj Party, warned the people to be careful of those parties which called themselves secular but were hand-in-glove with the BJP-Shiv Sena.

Sonia said only the Congress has the capacity to make the country strong and bring over-all development.