Terrorism, the focus of BJP campaign in the assembly elections in four states, appears to have failed to enthuse voters as the party lost government in Rajasthan and was unable to wrest power in Delhi.
Even in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where BJP retained power, the victory was attributed by the party leaders to development rather than terror plank.
BJP had made terrorism its main electoral plank, accusing the Congress of being "soft" on dealing with the scourge and projecting itself as the party which could insulate the country from it.
After the November 26 Mumbai attacks, the BJP intensified its campaign on terrorism. In this connection, the party issued advertisements in newspapers and its leaders, including L K Advani and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, raised their pitch against Congress over the issue.
However, this plank failed, significantly in Delhi and Rajasthan, which have suffered terror attacks repeatedly.
As electoral results trickled in, BJP President Rajnath Singh virtually admitted the failure of terrorism as a poll plank when he said that local issues played a crucial role in the elections.
Updated at 1532 hrs
The BJP today appeared all set to retain power in Madhya Pradesh, leading in 81 seats out of the 126 for which trends were available in the 230-member Assembly.
The Congress was leading in 37 seats. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was ahead in Budhni while Uma Bharti's Bharatiya Janshakti Party was trailing in all the 216 seats it contested. Bharti herself is trailing in Tikamgarh.
BSP is leading in five, Samajwadi Party two and an independent candidate in one.
The Congress stalwarts who are trailing are leader of opposition Jamuna Devi (Kukshi), Subhash Yadav (Kahrawat), Hazari Lal Raghuvanshi (Seonimalwa).
BJP ministers Gauru Shankar Shejwar (Sanshi)and Kailash Chawla (Manasa) were also behind in the vote count.
The state had recorded a 60 per cent turnout of voters on November 27, just a day after the Mumbai terror attacks.
Updated at 1051 hrs
The Congress and the BJP are in a neck-to-neck contest in Madhya Pradesh with both parties leading in 13 constituencies each.
The Samajwadi Party, Independent and Bahujan Samaj Party were ahead in one each constituency of the 29 seats for which trends were available till now.
Congress nominees who were leading are Yadvendra Singh (Tikamgarh), Tulsi Silawat (Sanwer), Kalpana Parulekar (Mahidpur), Brajendra Singh (Prithvipur), Hemant Tale (Harda), Purshottam Dangi (Biaora), Ramlal Malaviya (Ghatiya), Hemraj Kalponi (Rajgarh, Gangabai Ureti (Shahpura, Mangilal Parte (Timarni,) Priyavrat Singh (Khilchipur), Satyanarayan Patel (Depalpur)and Dilip Singh Gurjar (Nagda).
The BJP candidates who were ahead are Om Prakash Sakhlecha (Jawad), Gyan Singh (Bandhavgarh), Meena Singh (Manpur), Pandit Singh Dhurve (BIchchia), Ranjit Singh (Ashta), Ramesh Saxena (Sehare), Mohan Sharma (Narsingarh), Gautam Tetwal (Sarangpur), Santosh Koshi (Susner), Jeetu Jeerati (Rau), Rodmal Rathod (Tarana), Paras Jain (Ujjain North), Shantilal Dhabai (Badnagar).
Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Independent nominees Narendra Singh Khushwaha, Paras Ram Mudgal and Jai Singh Durbar were ahead in Bhind, Morena and Ujjain (south), respectively.
