A day after Rahul Gandhi's BJP balloon jibe, Arun Jaitely today wondered whether the Congress leader's remark was an "astrological prediction" or based on some rational political thinking and charged the Congressman of "living in denial".        

The remarks were made during the release of Congress manifesto in New Delhi yesterday, said Jaitley, who is BJP's candidate from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat.        

"Sonia Ji said we will prove all opinion polls wrong. Second (comment) was by Rahul Gandhi... who said the balloon of BJP will burst," he said. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Jaitley said BJP has never claimed that opinion polls are totally correct.       

 "But when reliable institutions conduct opinion polls... (they) indicate direction of public opinion and today there is clear direction that Narendra Modi is most popular person to become Prime Minister," he said.        

He said the broad direction indicated by opinion polls is that Congress is nose diving to a two digit figure and BJP hopes to reach its highest tally in post-independence history.