Both parties occupied busy thoroughfares in the morning near Paltan intersection and the North gate of Baitul Mukarram to celebrate October 1 as 'day of ballot revolution' where hundreds of party activists gathered and brought vehicular movement to a standstill for hours.

The gatherings played havoc with the traffic in central Dhaka by clogging up surrounding road networks of a wide area and the situation worsened in the afternoon while the Traffic Month campaign of the metropolitan police was going on.

"The city's traffic system almost collapsed and the situation was worsened particularly before Iftar as fasting people scrambled for any available transport to reach home from workplaces," said a traffic sergeant.

He, however, said apart from the political rallies the situation had been aggravated in the month of Ramadan as many poor and low-income people poured into the capital. "They moved into the city during the month of Ramadan to earn extra money by taking up odd jobs like pulling rickshaws."

"I had to spend additional two hours to come to Mirpur from Motijheel due to the traffic jam," said Kabir Ahmed, an employee at a private firm.

He expressed his resentment at the authorities' failure to tackle the traffic situation. "It seems that the authorities concerned do not bother about our problem."

"I have waited for over one and half hours near Kakrail intersection as my vehicle was almost standstill. Then, I had to walk for my destination to Rampura," said one Iqbal Hossain.

He said traffic in the city has been bad since the start of Ramadan, but yesterday's situation was the worst.