By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Blowing the bugle for his party ahead of the state Assembly election, ​B​JP National President Amit Shah will kick off the 75-day ​Nava Karnataka Parivartana ​Yatra ​in Bengaluru on Thursday. Shah will address party workers around 11.30am at the Bengaluru International Exhibition Centre​ on Tumakuru Road, following which the rally, led by state party president BS Yeddyurappa, will be flagged off.​

With nearly 2 lakh party workers expected to attend the yatra, of which 1 lakh are set to arrive on bikes, traffic is likely to be hit along Tumakuru Road.​Those heading towards ​the ​city ​or airport ​via Tumakuru road​, those ​head​ed towards Nelamangala ​and traffic on the busy Pune-Bengaluru highway ​​will be affected. ​​Bengaluru rural police have issued traffic diversions for heavy vehicles​.​ There will be no diversions within the city.

The 75-day yatra will cover all the 224 assembly constituencies in the state and is scheduled to end with a mega rally to be addressed by PM Narendra Modi in Bengaluru on January 28.

BJP rally likely to hit traffic on Tumakuru road

People heading to Tumakuru Road and nearby areas may be hit by traffic snarls due to BJP’s massive Nava Karnataka Parivarthana rally that will take off from Bengaluru International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) on Thursday.

BJP national president Amit Shah will flag off a 75-day yatra. Party is expecting close to two lakh people on the first day, of which 1 lakh are set to arrive on bikes. Party workers from 114 assembly constituencies in the state are attending the inaugural ceremony that will start around 11.30 am.Motorists coming to the city via Tumakuru Road and those taking this road to reach Kempegowda International Airport and also those going to Nelamangala are likely to be affected.Traffic on the busy Bengaluru-Pune National Highway will also take a hit as thousands of party workers are expected to arrive at the venue (BIEC) on motorbikes that will be part of the yatra led by BJP’s chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa.

In order to regulate traffic in these areas, the Bengaluru Rural district traffic police have issued diversions for heavy vehicles.Bengaluru Rural district SP Amit Singh said, “All the vehicles heading towards Bengaluru will be diverted towards Dabaspet area and there will be police officials to help them with the directions. People can reach Bengaluru via Doddaballapura or Madanayakanahalli. Vehicles coming from Bengaluru will be diverted near Gorguntepalya towards NICE Road to connect to Ramanagara. Vehicles coming from Mysuru and Tamil Nadu will be diverted to Turuvekere.”He said the event may last for four to five hours and the police have made arrangements to handle the traffic. Bengaluru city traffic police said that there will be no traffic diversions in the city.

Biggies to join yatra

A battery of senior BJP leaders, including Yogi Adityanath, Uma Bharati, Rajnath Singh, Vasundhara Raje, Devendra Fadnavis and Arun Jaitley, will take part in the yatra in different districts