TIRUNELVELI: At the end, it was the commitment to the bigger picture that settled the affair. While dejection was palpable in the Congress camp after the Tirunelveli Lok Sabha seat went to DMK, they took heart from the fact that it was just a sum of the greater whole of seeing Rahul Gandhi emerge from the hustings as the next Prime Minister.
There were subtle hints all through, more so when Rahul Gandhi campaigned at Nagercoil on March 13, when a section of Congress rank and file held up placards signalling they wanted Tirunelveli seat to fall into their kitty.
Not hiding his disappointment, a senior Congress functionary said that Tirunelveli was the seat from which they polled over 62,000 votes in 2014. Not exactly a flattering figure, but it polled less than 60,000 from other seats it had been allotted under the DMK banner last time around.
While the DMK has set its sight on the south by making sure Tirunelveli, Tenkasi and Thoothukudi constituencies came its way, Congress top brass promises that there will be no let up in their campaign to make DMK win big.
Congress Tirunelveli City district president K Sankarapandian said while the cadre were dejected with the decision, they have now resolved to back the DMK. DMK Tirunelveli East district secretary and former speaker R Avudaiappan hoped that alliance partners would back its candidate and ensure a thumping win.