Following the deadlock between the government and the agitating farmers over the recently-passed farm bills, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to take it’s defence of the legislations to the grassroots by holding ‘chaupals’ (village community meetings) and press meets from Friday.

“Bharatiya Janata Party is to organise press conferences and ‘chaupals’ in all the districts of the country on the new farm bills from today. 700 press conferences and 700 ‘chaupals’ to be organised in the coming days,” news agency ANI reported.

This comes on the heels of the failure of several rounds of talks between the government and the farmers. After the last round of negotiations with Home Minister Amit Shah on December 9, the farmers had agreed to wait for the proposals from the government. But the proposals that were sent, were rejected by the farmers the very next day.

The farmers, who have been sitting on a dharna along the Delhi’s borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh also decided to intensify their agitation by blocking more highways and ghereoing the BJP office on December 14.

On Friday, ANI tweeted photos of a long queue of tractors moving towards Delhi. “Around 700 tractor trolleys are moving towards Delhi’s Kundli border,” said SS Pandher, Kisan Mazdoor Sangarsh Committee.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Kisan Union leader rakesh Tikait said that both the government and the farmers need to step back. “The government must take back the law and the farmers should go back,” he added.

The farmers want that the laws that were promulgated in September must be repealed as they were ‘anti-farmer’ Among other things, they say the law does away with the MSP and helped the big corporates.