AGARTALA, Nov 17 (TIWN): The regular rallies and foot marches of political parties during their campaigns have been causing severe traffic jams, giving citizens a hard time. Political rally organised in the city had brought the lives of citizens to a halt with traffic congestion that took hours to clear.

The massive rallies hold by the political parties on the major part of the city roads during the busy hours of Monday morning ahead of the civic polls has lead to serious traffic chaos.

The leaders have been campaigning in an open van in the area. Huge numbers of vehicles are stuck in the traffic jam in different areas due to campaigning. Though traffic cops have been trying to minimise the traffic in the area, the narrow by lanes of Battala, Melarmath, and Paradise chowmuhani was choked with party workers busy in huge campaigning to woo the voters ahead of the civic polls which is slated to hold on dec 9.

The jam turns out to be so vulnerable that it requires more than half an hour to cover a distance of 3 km in two-wheeler.

Especially during the office hours the people are mainly facing trouble while travelling through this road. The road from Nagerjala to Battala has become congested resulting the parking of vehicles at the no parking zone on the roadside causing inconvenience to the smooth traffic movement, and more seriously to vulnerable pedestrians.

However, it is witnessed the political party are busy in holding rallies exactly during the office hours disrupting the smooth traffic movement at the major part of the city.

Stopping the movement of the vehicles at the roads the political party are seen holding massive rallies and letting the traffic chaos raise high in the city.

The election campaign rally turned Battala and other adjoining areas, in the heart of the capital, a chaotic place. The rally also led to traffic snarl-ups as thousands of people marched in series of rallies and several vehicles were parked along roads.

An agitated motorist stated, "It's simply awful with vendors on both sides of roads and vehicles being parked irresponsibly. No one stops anyone from staging a rally, but why trouble the commuters?"

Reacting on the traffic woes, an on-duty traffic cop said, "There is actually no traffic jam. The traffic movement only slowed down. People in rallies are neither obstructing the road nor are they marching in the middle."