LUCKNOW: In his most severe attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi so far, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said all Gujaratis as "liars". Assailing Modi for "reneging on promises to bring about all-round development," Mulayam said, "Gujarat ke logon ko jhooth bolne ki aadat hai," adding that all the people who failed to deliver on their promises were, in his eyes, corrupt.

Mulayam was addressing the Samajwadi Party's national women's conference in Lucknow. His daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav was also present. At the day-long event, in which SP's women leaders discussed their role in electoral politics with an eye on the 2017 assembly elections, Mulayam slammed Modi for his "false promises" of empowering women.

"Woh jo mahila sashaktikaran ki baat karte hain, koi yeh to pata karey ki unki patni kahan hain? (for a man who talks about empowerment of women, someone should find out where his wife is?)," Mulayam asked.

The veteran socialist then trained his guns at Modi's Swachh Bharat campaign saying "real" cleanliness could only come through poverty alleviation. "Asli safai kya hai? Jhadu se asli safai nahi, gareebi hatane se asli safai hoti hai," Mulayam said.

On Monday, the SP chief also punched holes in Modi's claims of being the first to pledge rural India with toilets. He said, "I started building toilets in rural areas in 1977. A large batch of toilets were also built in 1990. But Modi talks as if he's the one doing it for the first time."

To drive home his point, Mulayam said, "Some people lie that they have done a lot for women. You can be shrewd and clever to garner votes and become the Prime Minister. But you cannot hoodwink an entire nation through these tactics," he said.