Ludhiana West bypoll: Rallies, VIP convoys bring traffic to standstill on city roads

With the election campaign being in its last leg, the number of vehicles on city roads, mainly in the West constituency, has increased manifold. The influx of leaders for campaigning from across the country, coupled with rallies, roadshows by parties and local gatherings have slowed down the movement of traffic in several areas.

VIPs like star campaigners and celebrities, accompanied by a number of security vehicles, have been making rounds of the city for the election campaign. Not only is the rush of leaders to blame, workers of political parties are also adding to the traffic jam. Commuters, too, stop their vehicles in the middle of roads just to get a glimpse of the national-level leaders visiting their city.

Today, during a roadshow by SAD leader Bikram Majithia in Ghumar Mandi, traffic came to a standstill. Recently, a roadshow was organised by the Aam Aadmi Party in which former cricketer and Rajya Sabha MP from Jalandhar, Harbhajan Singh, along with the AAP candidate, reached Aarti Chowk where party workers had gathered in large numbers. Traffic had come to a standstill at the chowk as workers had parked their vehicles wrongly on the road. Even commuters had stopped to see the former cricketer by stopping their vehicles on the road, slowing down the movement of traffic.

Similarly, when Union Minister of State Ravneet Bittu, who is often accompanied by a large cavalcade of security vehicles, was conducting door-to-door campaigning in Ghumar Mandi recently, traffic movement had slowed down, causing inconvenience to the commuters and even shopkeepers.

It is pertinent to mention here that the traffic situation is in bad shape outside the election offices of political parties where the footfalls of workers remain high usually during morning and evening hours. The AAP candidate runs the election office from Malhar road where a number of vehicles remains parked. The BJP has its office in a palace on Ferozepur road and the Congress has its office on the Ferozepur road.

Even vehicles of political parties can be seen wrongly parked on the roads. Even the traffic police is not paying much heed to towing away wrongly parked vehicles of political parties as their action may offend the politicians.

A traffic police official requesting annonymity said if they start towing away vehicles of parties not in power, they may also be forced to tow away vehicles from outside the office of ruling party candidate. In any situation, the traffic police will not stand to gain as policemen may face allegations of bias and their complaint may be lodged with the Election Commission. So, it is better to avoid controversy as elections are in the last leg and traffic cops are doing their best to manage traffic in these testing times.