MLA Ajay Kumar Bulganin on the Assembly premises in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Traffic snarls, not one but three, robbed a new MLA of his chance to take oath on Thursday.

Mohiuddin Nagar MLA Ajay Kumar Bulganin left his home at Dhamaun village, around 45km northeast of Patna, for the Assembly with time to spare. What he hadn’t bargained for were the ubiquitous traffic snarls on the 5.575km Gandhi Setu. If the bridge, now under repair, was not enough, Bulganin had to face two more hurdles on the 6km travel between the Gandhi Setu and the Assembly.

Supposed to reach by 10am, he reached the Assembly’s annexe building at 11.10am, missing the oath-taking ceremony by 10 minutes. The one-and-a-half-hour journey took him three hours because of the congestion.

When The Telegraph asked the 51-year-old MLA the reason for his delay, he said: “I got stuck in three traffic snarls — first at Gandhi Setu, second in Kankerbagh and the third near the Karbigahiya end of Patna Junction. If you are stuck in a jam, tell me how can you expect to reach on time?”

Bulganin was sixth in line to take oath at the ceremony starting at 10.30am. It was wrapped up in 30 minutes by when the MLA couldn’t reach.

Nitish Kumar and chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi were among the leaders present when Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary administered oath to the MLAs elected in the bypoll to 10 Assembly seats last month. He started with Rajnagar MLA Ram Avatar Paswan.After the ceremony came to an end and Manjhi and Nitish went in to have tea, Bulganin turned up with a few of his supporters at 11.10am. The Assembly secretariat said Bulganin would be able to take oath in a couple of days.

Bulganin had started his journey from his village at 7.30am and on a normal day, he should have reached Patna by 9am. No wonder he was unhappy.

He said: “I started my journey from my village (Dhamaun) much in advance. I should have reached Patna by 10am. I did not realise Gandhi Setu will become a hurdle. I got stuck in the city too. It was horrible.”

Even though the Vaishali superintendent of police (SP), Suresh Prasad Choudhary, said the lawmaker should have just called him, snarls on the Gandhi Setu affect residents every day.

At present, a complete overhaul of the western part of the 44th span, including replacement of the superstructure in the stretch, is under way. Close to 75,000 vehicles take the bridge daily and often, a journey that should take no longer than a few minutes turns out to be a nightmare.

The Vaishali SP said: “When he was stuck in the traffic snarl, he should have just called me. Anyway, I will look into the matter.”

Patna’s acting SP (traffic) N.M. Jha said: “My officers were on duty. I did not get any complaint about traffic snarls anywhere in the city.”

Bulganin was far from convinced though. “I missed the ceremony because of the traffic snarls,” was all he said.