Rallies set to hit traffic today

Stay off SV Road and the Western and Eastern Express highways on Saturday.

From noon till late evening, the city’s three arterial roads will be choked, with major political parties scheduling rallies in their final campaign push for the impending Assembly polls.

Motorists should avoid these roads, as far as possible — Congress President Sonia Gandhi will address a joint Congress-NCP rally at the MMRDA Grounds at Bandra-Kurla Complex on Saturday afternoon, and the Sena-BJP are planning a joint rally at Shivaji Park in the evening.

A sign of how bad it will possibly get on Saturday, is the scene on Friday evening when Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray spoke at a rally at Shivaji Park.

Vehicular traffic in Dadar TT, Prabhadevi, Matunga, Parel, up to Mahim, was crippled because a large number of MNS vehicles were either parked or moving on these roads.

Ajit P, a Shivaji Park resident, said: “It was really bad, I struggled to reach my home from Dadar TT. It took me more than half an hour, normally it takes seven to eight minutes.”

Traffic was also choked on the Eastern Express highway, and from Sion circle up to Dadar, on Friday.

Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and other state leaders will be in attendance at the MMRDA Grounds rally.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) rally scheduled at Shivaji Nagar-Mankhurd could bring the eastern suburbs to a crawl.

SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav will attend the rally at 4 pm with Third Front leaders Ramdas Athavle and Jogendera Kawade (RPI).

Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s son and political heir Uddhav and BJP’s national president Rajnath Singh will address the Sena-BJP rally at Shivaji Park.

The Sena, in an article in its mouthpiece, Saamna, has appealed to party workers to follow traffic rules and cooperate with the traffic police in their arrangements for Saturday.

Considering the large-scale disruption of traffic on three major roads across the city, the traffic police have asked motorists to take alternate roads chalked out for the day (see boxes).