Rahul held up the Congress manifesto and also said that the party had demolished Narendra Modi.

When he had made a similar claim earlier, finance minister Arun Jaitley had reacted on Twitter, saying: 'Yesterday, Rahul Gandhi said, “I have dismantled Modi’s image”, how do you damage the image of a person who is riding perhaps at the peak of his popularity? How do you damage the reputation of a person who is known to be incredibly honest. Seems the Dynast is day dreaming.'

Before leaving the news conference today, the Congress president told journalists, smiling: 'Please tell the Prime Minister to have a couple of these press conferences also. It's looking bad now.'

Modi, after becoming the Prime Minister, has not held a single news conference. The record of his predecessor Manmohan Singh on holding press conferences is equally unimpressive. The BJP had given him the name 'Maun-mohan'.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi today declared at a news conference that his party's internal assessment indicates Narendra Modi would lose this election.

'Adhey se jyada election khatam ho gaya hai. Aur clear cut inidcation hai ke Narndra Modiji haar rahey hain (More than half the election is over. And there is a clear cut indication that Narendra Modi will lose),' he said at the Congress headquarters.

The Congress chief did not give any figures from the internal assessment, nor did he say that the Congress would win.

He attacked Modi on expected lines: joblessness in the country, farmers' distress, a weak economy and corruption in which he has directly accused the Prime Minister of having a hand. When he says 'chowkidar' anywhere now, the reply he gets is 'chor hai', Rahul said.

Rahul seemed particularly combative while speaking on the BJP's national security plank. Labelling Masood Azhar a global terrorist was important, he said, 'but who sent him to Pakistan?'

Azhar was released by the BJP-led government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999 in exchange for the lives of hostages of an Air India flight that was hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan. The Congress never did such a thing, Rahul said today.

Keeping to the security narrative, the Congress president said multiple surgical strikes were also carried out by the army when the UPA was in power. Modi's mention of surgical strikes during election rallies have enraged several veterans who have written to the President objecting to politicising the work of the defence forces.

In a recent interview to Hindustan Times, Manmohan Singh drew the distinction between strategic action of the forces and using their work for work for getting votes, which he called 'shameful and unacceptable'.

Rahul also floated the metaphorical sea plane to ridicule Modi and to allege that the Prime Minister believed in distracting the electorate from the real isses. 'Jaise hi Narendra Modiji ko lagta hai ke woh jitne waley nahin hain, woh kuch na kuchh karte hain. Jaise Gujarat mein sea plane kiya tha (whenever Narendra Modi realises he will lose, he does something new. Like the sea plane in Gujarat),' he said.