Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said a man becomes a "saint" not by what he wears but what he speaks.

The dig, apparently aimed at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, was made on the birthday of 'Khajanchi' – a boy born to a woman standing in a queue to exchange banknotes after demonetisation. The boy was named so by Yadav.

"Countdown has started for those who do encounters. Their days in the seat of power are numbered," Yadav said at the programme.

Yadav, without naming anyone, said people with cunning tend to become bitter in speech.

"You can see that their language has changed, their way of thinking and understanding have also changed," he said.

"A person who does not consider anyone to be bigger than him, what kind of a yogi is he? If there is anybody who is setting the seers against each other, it's the people in the government," the former UP chief minister said.

"It is said that the greater a saint is, the less he speaks, and when he speaks, it is for public welfare. Here, everything is the opposite. The kind of language which is being used... A person is not a Yogi by what he wears, but by what he speaks," the SP chief said.

Yadav said the older 'Khajanchi,' gets, the more he will remind people of the failure of demonetisation.

"And the truth is, demonetisation emerged as the biggest corruption in economic history of the world. Demonetisation has proved to be the ocean of BJP's corruption. It was a cosmetic exercise, and it has remained so," he said.

Yadav likened the impact of demonetisation to that of a "slow poison" which afflicted farmers, labourers, the middle and salaried class, small traders and street vendors, all alike.