BJP's anti-price rise rally triggers traffic chaos

Traffic crawled across central Delhi today as thousands of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers gathered in New Delhi for a massive rally against rising prices, the first show of strength for newly elected party president Nitin Gadkari.

Traffic crawled across central Delhi on Wednesday morning as thousands of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers gathered in New Delhi for a massive rally against rising prices, the first show of strength for newly elected party president Nitin Gadkari.

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BJP leaders claim that an estimated 300,000 people will gather at the Ramlila Maidan for the rally. According to the plan, after the rally, some 10,000 BJP activists will march to Jantar Mantar through Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, Tolstoy Marg and Sansad Marg around 2 pm when traffic movement along the route in central Delhi is expected to get worse.

The worst hit are Ring Road, Mathura Road, India Gate, Tilak Marg, Asaf Ali Road, Netaji Subhash Marg, Ranjit Singh Marg, Tolstoy Marg, Sikandra Road, Barakhamba Road, Parliament Street and Ashoka Road. The party had Tuesday appealed to Delhiites to bear with the traffic jams from 10 am to 6 pm.

Senior leaders like L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, and Rajnath Singh as well as Gadkari are slated to address the rally, the culmination of protests held by the party in various states against the increase in prices of essential commodities and the economic policies of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

This will be the biggest mass rally of the party under the leadership of Gadkari, who assumed office in December last year.