Guwahati, April 1: Rain played spoilsport on the second day of Namami Brahmaputra festival but people braved the downpour to visit the venues spread across 21 districts in Assam.

According to Sanjay O'Neil Shaw, the director of Borjhar-based Regional Meteorological Centre: "Moderate to heavy rain and thundershowers are very likely at most places of Assam and Meghalaya till April 4 and light to moderate rainfall at many places in both the states are likely on April 5. Rainfall is more likely to occur in areas near the rivers. The rain is resulting from an upper air cyclonic circulation over north Bangladesh and its neighbourhood that extends up to 2.1km above mean sea level and a trough runs from this cyclonic circulation to south Odisha across Gangetic West Bengal and extends up to 1.5km above sea level."

"Rain in the Northeast generally starts from March-April. It is a common thing. Why did the government organise the festival now?" Parag Das, a salesman in Fancy Bazar, wondered.

Senior cabinet minister and key member of the festival organising committee Chandra Mohan Patowary told The Telegraph that the weather issue was factored in while deciding on the dates of the festival.

"We had a discussion with the Met department. There was no forecast of rain. There was forecast of rain during the inauguration but it didn't happen. Such things can't be helped," Patowary said. However, sources in the organising committee told The Telegraph that all aspects of the festival, which will be held annually, would be reviewed after the mega event is over.

Rain started in the city from last evening and continued till this evening. "Though the crowd was smaller than what we had anticipated, there was a consistent stream of footfall to the venue," one of the organisers in Guwahati said.

Anand Prakash Tiwari, member of the publicity cell of the festival, said, "A few of the open air cultural activities were delayed. When the rain intensity was less, some performances were presented."

"If we have missed out something, we will conduct it on another day of the event. The boat race was delayed by two hours because of rain. But when it finally started, there was a fair amount of people crowding on the bank to watch it. It was a successful event. There was a significant crowd at the tribute function too," Tiwari said.

In Silchar, 74.4mm rain was recorded during the last 24 hours, administration sources said.

About 51 hectares and six hectares of boro paddy in Karigorah and Udharbond circles respectively were affected by the rain.

Traffic on both Barak Valley-Meghalaya and Silchar-Haflong roads was affected and very few vehicles plied in the wet conditions.