Keeping post-poll options for alliances open, Rahul Gandhi expressed confidence on Tuesday that the Left parties would back Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister and appeared to reach out to key BJP allies such as JD-U and TDP.

An upbeat Congress General Secretary said that the NDA existed only in the mind of the BJP and not on the ground and confidently asserted that the saffron party will sit in the opposition.

At an hour-long press conference ahead of the fourth phase of polling on Thursday, Gandhi said the Congress would do better than in the last elections when it got 145 seats on its own.

"After elections, all options are open. ...We have always been open to post-poll alliances", he said at the media interaction, the third in the series, in which he had some good words for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu.

"I respect Naidu. He has done a good job....may be he focused on Hyderabad . I am not saying (only we have leaders) There are leaders who are in the opposition. Nitish for example ....I think the intention (to work) is there," he said replying to a question whether non-Congress governments are not doing well in the matter of development.

Earlier in the press conference, Gandhi said that Nitish Kumar's JD-U and Jayalalithaa's AIADMK, who were or are part of the NDA, were now facing the question (of options) because the NDA is "finished" throughout the country and was existing only in namesake.

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