A few days after Sheila Dikshit?s convincing return to power in Delhi for the third time in a row, Congress leaders got into a huddle for a preliminary review of the verdict. Among the principal conclusions drawn was this one: the electorate had rejected the BJP?s attempt to pin down its adversary on the issue of terrorism.

The BJP?s attempt to whip up sentiments by coming out with advertisements featuring blood-splattered scenarios had evidently not persuaded voters. By all accounts, the message from the people was that terror should not be a partisan issue and that parties should not try to politically encash terrorist attacks.

Today, as the war talk refuses to die down and sabre-rattling is loud in Pakistan, the big question is whether Indo-Pak ties after the Mumbai terror attacks will override development and bread and butter issues in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for early next year. Political leaders informally concede that the issue of national security is poised at the forefront, but parties refuse to officially declare it a dominant theme.

?Why should there be a single issue? All issues that have come up in the last five years are of concern to the people,? says Brinda Karat, CPM leader and Rajya Sabha member. ?Ours is a comprehensive approach in which development and financial security form part of the package. As far as national security is concerned, we have maintained that along with administrative measures, political parties have to ensure that while we fight terrorism uncompromisingly, the politics of division on communal lines is resisted which weakens our people?.

Congress leaders contend that the UPA will focus on the ?good work? done by the Congress-led government in the last five years. ?It can never be a one issue election. The UPA government has fared well in the last five years, particularly in the social sector. As the recent assembly polls have underlined, good governance pays,? says a senior party leader. A section in the Congress, however, feels that though the assembly polls results were reassuring on account of the rejection of ?terror? as the overriding theme by the electorate, it may not be the same story in the Lok Sabha elections.

Such views find resonance in the BJP, notwithstanding the perceived ineffectiveness of its national security plank in the recent assembly polls. The BJP, after all, won the 1999 general elections on Kargil.

The party, however, rejects suggestions that the party will focus solely on national security. ?People look at issues in the last five years comprehensively and then come to conclusions. Priorities are different for different people. We will be highlighting terrorism, betrayal of the kisan, internal security and all concerns of the aam aadmi? says BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Prakash Javadekar. ?The economic slowdown will be one of the biggest worries?.

But, adds Javadekar, ?Pakistan is in denial mode. So we will have to see if the government walks the talk or fails to do so?.