BJP Foundation Day: Rally sends city traffic into a tizzy

Mumbai: This is the season of rallies and marches in Mumbai. But unlike the farmers’ march on March 12, when the protestors changed their schedule to ensure Mumbaikars weren’t inconvenienced, BJP workers, from Thursday night, were showing off their strength and creating major traffic jams.

Many citizens cited the example of farmers and criticised the complete lack of civic sense shown by BJP workers when escorting their party president Amit Shah on Thursday night. Comedian Atul Khatri said, “BJP leader’s motor cavalcade caused a 5-hour jam during peak hours in Mumbai yesterday. Last month 50,000 farmers ‘walked’ at midnight into Mumbai so as to not cause inconvenience to us. Hate you politicians!”

Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan was travelling from Film City at Goregaon to his residence in Juhu-Vile Parle Development Scheme (JVPD) after a film shoot at night and it took him five hours and said the frames of a movie camera are faster than this travel. “T 2765 – A 30 min drive takes 5 hours! thats the Phantom movie camera moving at 500 frames per second. Film City to JVPD Scheme, Juhu normal camera moves at 24 frames,” he tweeted.

A regular, Gauri Vartak tweeted in Marathi “People are being held ransom at the cost of our mobility and travel, they are holding their own events. These are #achchedin.”

Thousands of commuters were stranded on the Western Express Highway on Friday too. Messages were circulated warning citizens. The news of the record breaking crowds at BKC was circulating, as it was reported, 5000 odd buses and 28 trains were deployed to bring in crowds from other parts of the state.

Also read: BJP Foundation Day: Golden era will start when BJP takes Bengal and Odisha, says Amit Shah

Harsh Dodhia, 29, a Malad resident said he was stranded at the WEH for more than three hours on Friday. “I started at 8:30 am and reached Andheri at 11:45. This is atrocious. A party’s foundation day should not be hinder other’s daily lives,” he said.

After attending the rally, some BJP supporters reached Bandra station and boarded local trains for Mumbai darshan. They did not even bother to read and find out rules regarding 1st Class and 2nd Class compartments. Waving party flags and scarves, the crowds entered 1st Class compartments. When commuters tried to convince them to get down and change the compartment, they said, “We are also First Class people.” The worst was that there was no ticket checking squad.

When the FPJ enquired with ticket checking squad at Churchgate if these commuters were travelling ticketless, a ticket collector admitted that they could have been were travelling in 1st Class after taking “chalu tickets”.