NEW DELHI, July 24 (Reuters) - Leaders of India's youth-led "cockroach" movement said on Friday that the government has asked for time until Saturday afternoon to respond on their demand for the education minister's resignation, following talks between the two sides.
The talks came hours after activist Sonam Wangchuk ended his 26-day hunger strike, raising hopes that the two sides could reach a breakthrough after tens of thousands of angry youth converged in the capital Delhi to demand the minister's resignation over exam paper leaks.
The anti-government protests represent the biggest youth challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he came to power in 2014. Opposition parties have echoed the movement's demands and have disrupted the monsoon session of parliament that began this week.
The talks were the first substantive meeting between the two sides after a preliminary round held on Monday.
The government was represented by senior federal ministers J.P. Nadda and Jitendra Singh, while the protesters were represented by Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, spokespersons of the self-named Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).
The CJP leaders said that they had clearly conveyed to the ministers that nothing would be acceptable to them without the education minister's resignation, warning that protests would become even more widespread if this was not done.
"The government has asked for time until tomorrow afternoon to respond on this point (the minister's resignation)," Ranka told reporters after the talks. "We hope the government will dismiss Dharmendra Pradhan at the earliest, or that he will resign, so that we can bring this matter to a conclusion."
Minister Nadda said the talks took place in a cordial atmosphere.
"They had three main demands. We have told them we will meet you tomorrow afternoon and discuss the demands," he said.
Besides the resignation of minister Pradhan, the protesters want police cases filed against protesters dropped, and compensation paid to families of more than a dozen students who local media reported took their own lives after the exam paper leak in May.
(Reporting by YP Rajesh, Tanvi Mehta, Sakshi Dayal, Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Saurabh Sharma, Shanima A, Anushree Fadnavis, Aftab Ahmed, Bhawika Chhabra, Aditya Kalra; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
