The denizens of the Baleswar town on Monday faced a tough time as processions were held creating traffic snarls all the way.
They experienced an unprecedented road jam during nomination period, especially between 10 am and 3 pm as the supporters of different political parties arrived near the collectorate in processions along with their candidates for filing nominations.
All the major roads of the town were virtually choked from all directions as they were marred with number of vehicles accompanied with a huge number of supporters.
The city too witnessed a huge number of flags, caps, headbands, scarves, badges, placards of different colours , green, saffron and tri-colour ( representing symbolically of BJD ,BJP and Congress), besides traditional drum beats and other musical
instruments , crackers and sloganeering.
Although adequate arrangement was made by the district and police administration to avoid any untoward incidents, especially overlapping of rallies of different political parties on the same routes, yet serious traffic jams could not be averted.
No hotel, restaurant, eatery was free from crowd as a floating population of over 60,000 comprising supporters from different Assembly segments thronged the town.
One could witness huge gathering in almost all shops. The roadside shops, especially betel shops, had a brisk business.
Incidentally, candidates for Baleswar Parliamentary constituency of three major political parties including BJP, BJD and Congress filed their nomination papers while one more day to go for closing of nomination date.
It may be noted that Baleswar is scheduled to go for polls in the last phase ie, April 29, while the closing date of nomination is April, 9.
The nomination filing began from April 2.
Today the candidates for Baleswar Parliamentary constituency from three major political parties, BJD, Congress and BJP, respectively, RK Jena, Navajyoti Pattnayak and
Pratap Sarangi, filed their nomination papers along with their supporters with the returning officer cum district Collector. Several candidates of some of the Assembly constituencies also filed nomination papers along with their supporters.