Ballari: The Bharat Jodo Yatra, organised by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, drew large crowds from many different places, and some roads leading to Ballari saw traffic jams of over five hours on Saturday October 15. The National Highway-63 was blocked at Kudatini, and traffic moved slowly all day from 1.00 pm.
While buses carrying the Congress workers were stuck on the outskirts of the City due to the heavy movement of trucks from mines, many areas of traffic went haywire.
There were gridlocks in many places due to the National Highway 63 road widening work being done and the lack of police to manage the traffic. To allow their vehicles to enter Ballari, Congress workers stopped trucks near Kudatini.
Several vehicles made a U-turn and started driving away from Ballari since they were stuck in a traffic jam some 20 km away since 2.00 pm. Traffic moved slowly until late Saturday night with no lane discipline.
Regular travellers had trouble getting to the rally because Congress had booked several buses from the Gadag, Koppal, and Hosapete depots. At the bus stops at Gadag and Koppal, many people had to wait for many hours to board buses headed to Ballari.
