BJP's rally leads to traffic jams in western suburbs of Mumbai

A rally organised by the BJP to mark its 38th foundation day, addressed by its national president Amit Shah, caused a lot of hardship to commuters in the western suburbs of Mumbai today, as traffic came to a standstill.

Many contrasted the situation with the farmers' march last month, when the agitators had walked at night and avoided causing inconvenience to Mumbaikars during the day.

Motorists had a tough time during the morning rush hour today, especially between Andheri and Bandra on the arterial Western Express Highway, as BJP workers heading for the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) contributed to massive traffic snarls.

The traffic on the Western Express Highway had already begun to slow down early in the morning, while that on the Eastern Express Highway was comparatively smoother.

Traffic Police had issued an advisory, asking commuters to avoid Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR), Surve Junction on LBS Road, Sion Junction, Dharavi T Junction, CST Road, Nehru Road till Ambedkar Junction and Sharadadevi Road.

Mythologist and author Devdutt Pattanaik took to twitter, recalling how agitating farmers marched towards South Mumbai in the dead of night last month, so as to avoid causing inconvenience to motorists and students taking board exams the next day.

"Thousands of poor powerless farmers marched into city at night. Mumbai was not inconvenienced. Today rich powerful politicians arrive with a show of force like a herd of wild elephants. Mumbai trembles," Pattanaik tweeted.

Traffic control room officials confirmed snarls from T-junction and BKC, Mahim towards the Western Express Highway, but said that the traffic flow was smooth after 4 pm.

City Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam slammed the BJP. "Mumbaikars were inconvenienced by traffic snarls for close to six hours....On the other hand you had 35,000 farmers who came in quietly, travelled through the night so that the people of the city would not be inconvenienced," he said.

BJP workers' bike rally to welcome party president Amit Shah in the city yesterday too had led to massive traffic jams on the roads leading to the airport.

In addition, several trains arrived late here after BJP workers, being ferried in special services for the rally, allegedly forced unscheduled halts at some stations.