New Delhi: Defying the Covid lockdown, thousands of farmers gathered at Haryana’s Karnal and Panipat toll plazas before leaving in a convoy for Delhi in a build-up to the May 26 protest, organised to mark six months of the agitation against the three controversial farm laws enacted by the centre. The gatherings at the two toll plazas, where many farmers were not seen wearing masks or maintaining social distance, was also aimed at dispelling the notion that their protest, which started at several points on Delhi borders in November last year, was dying out amid the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. On May 20, a large convoy of farmers from Punjab's TaranTaran had left for Delhi and a prominent farmer leader has promised that convoys of around 2,000 vehicles each will leave every week from one district of the state for Delhi to participate in the May 26 protests. large camps near Delhi’s borders: Singh, Ghaziabad, Tikri, Dhansa, and at Shahjahanpur on the Rajasthan-Haryana border, demanding the rollback of three laws passed in September last year

Farmers have been protesting at five sites to lift restrictions on trade in farm produce. They have described the laws as pro-corporate. However, the government has maintained that the laws are for their benefit. The continued protests have also sparked concerns of a potential spread of Covid-19 infections, but the farmers have refused to give up the agitation, citing it as a matter of livelihood

Haryana Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) president Gurnam Singh Charuni led the farmers’ convoy of SUVs, cars, and bikes from Karnal'sBastara toll plaza, where they had gathered since Sunday morning.

"This new movement of farmers will not only give strength to the agitation but will also give a message to those claiming that the agitation is likely to end due to a decline in the number of farmers at Delhi borders," said a farmer leader pleading anonymity.

With the harvesting of wheat finished and transplantation of paddy to start from June 15, farmers’ unions from Haryana are reaching out to villages for the past one week to ensure a huge gathering of farmers from the state reaches Delhi borders on May 26.