Protest cripples traffic movement

Traffic movement on all roads leading to the MG statue near Chinnaswamy stadium was crippled for nearly three hours between 11 am and 2 pm, as hundreds of BJP workers along with their leaders staged a dharna. Motorists were forced to suffer in the traffic jam, while the BJP leaders vented their anger against the Governor and leaders of the opposition parties.

Except Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and Home Minister R Ashoka, almost all cabinet ministers took part in the dharna led by BJP State unit chief K S Eshwarappa. Ironically, the BJP leaders, including the Chief Minister, had recently accused the Congress of causing inconvenience to motorists by staging protests in the city. The principal opposition party Congress had staged protest at Mahatma Gandhi statue on Thursday, leading to traffic jam.

The worst affected due to the BJP protest were Kasturba Road, MG Road, Queen’s Road and St Mark’s Road. Traffic had piled up for over two km on these roads. The traffic police were forced to relax the one-way traffic movement on Queen’s road between Mahatma Gandhi  Statue and Minsk Square due to rush of people.

The BJP had directed all its MPs, MLAs and corporators in Bangalore to arrive with their workers for the show-of-strength dharna aimed at exerting pressure on the Centre to reject the Governor’s report. Leaders like Ramachandra Gowda and P C Mohan arrived at the venue in procession along with hundreds of their workers, adding to the woes of motorists. The police had allowed hundreds of private vehicles -- tempo travellers, mini buses, cars used to ferry the party workers-- to park on either sides of these roads.

As the crowd started swelling, the traffic police blocked vehicle movement on the Queen’s Road, and allowed the BJP workers to occupy the road. The dharna, which commenced at 11 am, went on till 1.30 as nearly a dozen leaders, including BJP national general secretary Ananth Kumar, Eshwarappa and Ministers Janardhana Reddy, V Somanna, Basavaraj Bommai, M P Renukacharya lashed out at the Governor while addressing the workers.

 Minister plays a traffic cop

Noticing the inconvenience being caused to motorists near Cubbon Park due to the protest organised by his party, Law Minister S Suresh Kumar joined hands with traffic police in easing the problem.

He directed the traffic police to control the crowd. He ensured all vehicles parked at the traffic junction were cleared, paving the way for traffic flow. However, he could not help all those who were stuck in the traffic pile up on many roads leading to the MG statue.