A mega Bharatiya Janata Party bike rally held to welcome BJP President Amit Shah led to major traffic jams in the Mumbai on Thursday. Shah is scheduled to address an event to mark the party’s 38th foundation day celebrations at the city’s MMRDA grounds in Bandra Kurla Complex on Friday.

The party has booked 28 trains from across the state and 50,000 private buses and vehicles to transport the three lakh people scheduled to attend the event, NDTV reported.

Thursday’s rally blocked the Western Express Highway. The city’s traffic police attempted to ensure smooth vehicular movement by announcing diversions and deploying additional personnel to handle the congestion. The traffic police also issued an advisory asking students who had examinations and commuters travelling out of city to schedule their travel arrangements accordingly.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Amitesh Kumar told The Hindu that the rally blocked traffic at Centaur Hotel junction and led to a jam all the way up to Aarey Colony. “We had deployed more than 100 traffic police personnel at the junction,” Kumar said.

People took to social media to vent their frustration over the traffic snarls. Several drew parallels with the recent farmers’ protest and praised their protestors for making efforts not to inconvenience commuters. The party, meanwhile, ran a #MumbaiWelcomesAmitShah hashtag on Twitter.

Here are some of the reactions: