It’s been a day of mixed emotions for thousands gathered at Delhi's Jantar Mantar. The morning began with the usual energy, but there was also a sense of nervousness as protesters waited to see whether the government would act.

The biggest question on everyone's mind was whether Dharmendra Pradhan would resign. In the afternoon, when news of his resignation broke, the mood shifted instantly, sending everyone into wild celebrations.

Now - as night falls - the crowds are beginning to thin. CJP leaders have urged protesters to return home peacefully and told local media that they expect to meet the new education minister soon.

We are ending our live coverage of this very eventful day here.

You can read more here

Srosh Khan
BBC Newsbeat

As the day draws to a close, many protesters say they are celebrating a hard-fought victory - but insist their campaign is far from over.

Ria Sharma says she's happy about the resignation of the education minister, something she's been protesting for weeks, but wants the Indian government to take greater accountability.

"They have failed students," the 22-year-old tells BBC Newsbeat as she travelled to the protest with friends earlier today.

"We are looking for no more paper leaks. No student's future should be under this level of uncertainty," she says.

Sharma, from Delhi, tells us about a friend who had to retake his exams after an alleged paper leak.

"When the paper leaks happened, he got depressed. He lost all hope in the system. He's clueless and has no idea what to do in the future."

Like many other protesters, Sharma says she wants Prime Minister Narendra Modi to meet students and hear their concerns directly.

Azadeh Moshiri
Reporting from Jantar Mantar, Delhi

Image source, Getty Images

The very same stage dismantled by police on Monday is now being taken down by Cockroach Janta Party volunteers.

For hours, protesters celebrated what to them feels like a hard-earned victory. Volunteer doctors and healthcare professionals are now packing up all the leftover medicines at their first aid stand for donation.

Protesters are still celebrating on nearby streets and police are still standing by.

Multiple times I’ve heard the words “it’s not over”.

This week will likely be a wake-up call for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He and the BJP are election winners, but they’ve lost the faith of the young protesters here.

Some have told me there’s still time to rebuild trust, but most say "it’s simply too late".

Image source, Getty Images

CJP leaders say they plan to pursue legal action against police officers they accuse of using excessive force during recent protests.

The movement's spokespersons, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, met Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar a short while ago.

"We made it clear to them that we have resolved to take legal action against every police officer and Rapid Action Force personnel who was seen in videos or photographs using excessive force, and those who directly struck people on the head, causing head and hand injuries," Das told reporters after the meeting.

He said CJP had launched a website where people could submit evidence and that it planned to file complaints against the officers involved.

The Delhi police is yet to comment on this.

Das also said the movement would be closely watching the new education minister.

"India's youth will demand accountability," he said, adding that CJP hoped to meet the minister soon.

"The government has promised to hold a meeting within a month, and then we will see what happens," he said.

Srosh Khan
BBC Newsbeat

Reaction is continuing to pour in from protest leaders following Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation.

"We are so happy. You can see the students are celebrating. It is a huge victory," Viraaj Devang, president of the All India Students Federation, tells BBC Newsbeat from a café in Delhi.

The 29-year-old says he has been part of the protest movement since day one.

"When someone is calling us cockroaches, we say cockroaches do survive," he says. "They survive earthquakes. We survived, and that's how we got this win."

But Devang says the resignation is only the beginning.

"We still have a lot of work to do," he says, adding that protesters will continue pressing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government for wider reforms to India's education system.

Image source, Getty Images

Pralhad Joshi, who has been given additional charge of the education ministry following Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation, is a senior BJP leader from the southern state of Karnataka.

The 64-year-old is regarded as one of the BJP's veteran parliamentarians, having represented Dharwad in the Lok Sabha since 2004.

Over the years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has entrusted him with several key portfolios, including parliamentary affairs, coal and mines.

He currently serves as minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution, as well as new and renewable energy.

Joshi now takes on one of the toughest assignments of his political career, inheriting an education ministry under intense pressure after weeks of student protests.

His immediate task will be to restore confidence in India's examination system - and steer the ministry through one of its most challenging periods.

Vikas Pandey
Reporting from Jantar Mantar

Image source, Getty Images

The crowds have finally started to thin out at Jantar Mantar after a packed day of celebrations - almost seven hours after the CJP announced it was calling off its protest.

Some protesters linger to take photos, hug one another and soak in what they see as a hard-fought victory. Others are heading to their usual party spots in central Delhi to keep the celebrations going.

"It's Saturday night. after all," 22-year-old Abhishek said.

"And today it feels different. What a day. We won."

The government will not take action against people who organised and participated in the protests, federal Health Minister JP Nadda said in a statement on X.

Nadda, who led the government's talks with CJP representatives, said the group had submitted a written proposal on cases linked to the protests, along with its five-point charter, on Saturday.

"The government assured that no action will be taken against the organisers and protesters, and no new cases will be registered in connection with the agitation," the minister wrote.

"It also expressed condolences to the families of the students who lost their lives [after the cancellation of the NEET medical exam] and assured them of the highest possible compensation as per the rules," he said.

He said the government had responded positively to the CJP's five-point charter and would continue discussions with the group.

"Students and youth have been requested to end the agitation peacefully and allow the dialogue process to continue," he wrote.

Image source, JP Nadda/X

Image source, Getty Images

We are continuing to hear from senior ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government following Pradhan's resignation.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has now described the resignation as evidence that the government gives the highest priority to students and young people.

In a post on X, Singh said the decision reflected the government's commitment to addressing concerns over NEET - the contentious medical exam which has been at the centre of the protest - the question paper leaks and reforms to India's education system.

He also praised Pradhan's tenure, describing his contribution as "inclusive, future-ready, and aligned with the aspirations of a New India".

Vikas Pandey
Reporting from Jantar Mantar

It's been hours since the CJP announced the end of its protest, but the crowds are still here - celebrating, chanting and dancing.

This is the day they have waited weeks for, and they are in no mood to leave without celebrating it.

It's now past 20:30 local time, and Jantar Mantar is beginning to feel more like a party spot than a protest site.

Most of the CJP's leaders have left, but volunteers are still doing their best to manage the crowds.

Outside the main stage area, police are looking inside nervously. One of them told me they will only intervene if they see a law-and-order situation developing

Indian President Droupadi Murmu said in a press communique that she had directed Pralhad Joshi, a cabinet minister, to be assigned the charge of the education ministry on the advice of Prime Minister Modi.

Joshi will continue to be the federal minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution. He also holds the portfolio for renewable energy.

Murmu said she has also formally accepted the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan.

Vikas Pandey
Reporting from Jantar Mantar

There is one common sentiment that I keep hearing from people at Jantar Mantar, and it's not one I expected.

People keep talking about how much they're going to miss the protest.

In my experience of covering other big agitations, people usually breathe a sigh of relief when they're over. But the 'cockroach' protest is different in many ways.

Most people I speak to say they will miss being here. They say the site had become a microcosm of how they feel India should be.

One of them told me: "Nobody was rich or poor here. Nobody asked what religion or caste a person belonged to. Everyone was united for one cause."

The protest was truly self-driven. It had become a home for so many people. And that's what they're going to miss.

Image source, Congress

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said his Congress party holds Home Minister Amit Shah "directly responsible for the violence inflicted" on students.

The Delhi Police reports to the federal home ministry.

"He authorised the firing on our students, authorised the use of lethal weapons, and authorised the use of pellet guns against them," he said. "That's a fundamental issue."

Shah has not commented on the protests or the crackdown yet.

Gandhi said the opposition would raise this as a major issue in India's parliament. "One of the students' demands: an apology from the Prime Minister," he said.

Central Delhi witnessed overwhelming violence on Monday at CJP's protest, with dozens of protesters wounded when police used batons and tear gas on them.

BBC Verify also analysed videos from Monday which showed security officers firing so-called pellet guns towards protesters.

The Central Reserve Police Force didn't respond to Verify's questions about the use of pellet guns and the injuries protesters appeared to sustain.

Anbarasan Ethirajan
Global Affairs Reporter

Image source, NurPhoto via Getty Images

Solidarity for the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP's) protest in Delhi crossed borders with rallies by Indian diaspora in the UK, US, Canada, Ireland and Germany.

Dozens of people from the Indian community held a protest outside the Indian High Commission in London this week with participants waving Indian flags and holding photographs of the principal architect of the Indian constitution, BR Ambedkar.

Videos on social media showed some people holding placards calling for reforms to the education system in India in New York.

People from the Indian diaspora also held a rally in support of the Delhi protests in Berlin.

Another solidarity rally for the CJP was being planned in London’s Trafalgar square on Sunday afternoon.

Similar protests were held in many cities abroad in 2019-20 when the government brought in a controversial citizenship law.

This time, support extended beyond the Indian diaspora, with young people holding a torchlight march in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, in solidarity with the CJP.

Image source, Getty Images

The Delhi Metro has reopened all station entrances after shutting more than a dozen stations when crowds swelled around Jantar Mantar following the police crackdown on protesters.

The closures disrupted thousands of commuters, many of whom had to get off at distant stations and complete their journeys by foot, bus or auto-rickshaw.

The Metro gave no reason for the shutdowns, but they were widely seen as an attempt to limit access to the protest site.

Despite the restrictions, hundreds of people continued to gather at Jantar Mantar throughout the week.

Geeta Pandey
Reporting from Delhi

The CJP movement has been one of the most visible expressions of public dissent against PM Modi’s government in recent years.

Pressure began growing on Modi after Monday’s brutal crackdown on protesters when police and paramilitary personnel used batons, wooden sticks and tear gas to chase them away. Tens of thousands had responded to the CJP’s call for a march to parliament and reached central Delhi.

Videos of profusely bleeding young men and women being repeatedly hit by sticks and batons shocked India and attracted condemnation from all the opposition parties. The Congress party has alleged that the security forces also used pellet guns on protesters, sending shockwaves through India.

Police said 118 of their personnel were also injured. But major opposition parties, farmer leaders, activists and celebrities largely blamed the police and paramilitary forces for triggering the violence.

Vikas Pandey
Reporting from Jantar Mantar

Though the CJP has now called off the protest, the crowds here at Jantar Mantar are still growing.

The main road in central Delhi where the Cockroach Janta Party's stage has been set up is not especially wide, but it is now packed from end to end.

There are people as far as I can see - filling the road, spilling into adjoining streets and continuing to stream in.

Celebrations are being continuously pierced with appeals of calm as the crowds continue to swell. Volunteers are doing their best to keep order but everyone wants to get close to the stage to see or get a photo with the CJP leaders - who have said they don't want to be called heroes but they are being seen as exactly that by many in the crowd.

Also on the scene are scores of personnel from the RAF and the Delhi Police, most of them wearing full riot gear.

Geeta Pandey
Reporting from Delhi

It took the “cockroaches” - as Dipke and the CJP protesters call themselves - five weeks to force a government minister to resign.

In end-June, when I first visited Jantar Mantar, the main protest venue, the CJP protest had already been going on for a week.

It was small, with a rag-tag bunch of a couple of hundred young people hanging around. Sonam Wangchuk, respected Gandhian activist, had begun an indefinite hunger strike in their support just a day earlier.

As days passed, his condition began to deteriorate. A week later he’d lost more than 8kg, grown frail and was in pain.

As sympathy rose for Wangchuk, who was already well-known in India as the inspiration behind the 2009 hit film 3 Idiots, thousands began to arrive at the protest venue to express solidarity with “Sonam sir”.

Image source, Getty Images

He was forcibly removed by the police last Saturday and taken to hospital. The CJP alleged he had been roughly handled, leading to a huge outrage in India.

Wangchuk’s continued fast in hospital and Monday’s brutal crackdown on those attempting to march to the parliament was what turned the tide in favour of the CJP - ultimately leading to Pradhan’s resignation on Saturday.

Crowds at Delhi's Jantar Mantar are elated after India's education minister stepped down. The BBC's Vikas Pandey reports.