New Delhi: Narendra Modi launched such a vitriolic attack on the Congress government in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh on Thursday that the octogenarian chief minister there said he had never before seen such conduct from any Prime Minister.

Modi said the Congress's promise to fight corruption has made it "a laughing club" and described the party's government in Himachal as a "demonic" regime whose chief minister was "out on bail".

"Their courage has to be appreciated. Nothing has been left. They (the Congress) have plundered the state.... The CM has a corruption case against him. He is out on bail. And then, they come out with a manifesto saying there will be zero tolerance on corruption," Modi told a campaign meeting ahead of the November 9 polls.

Then he delivered the punch line: "The Congress party has become a laughing club."

Chief minister Virbhadra Singh has been charged by the CBI with amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income and has been granted bail. But the case is still being heard in court.

Singh said he had seen every Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru but never witnessed such conduct by any Prime Minister. "There used to be decency.... But all limits were broken today," the chief minister added.

Modi said the Congress regime in the state had given rise to several " rakshas (demons)": the mining mafia, forest mafia, drug mafia and the tender mafia.