Junior doctors on strike at NRS Medical College and Hospital said they were always ready for talks and hinted at a rethink on the insistence that the chief minister should meet them on the campus.

“You are our chief minister. Please consider our state. We are always ready for a discussion. If the venue of the discussion was an issue, I would say that we are leaving it to the general body meeting to take a call on this,” said Archisman Bhattacharya, a spokesperson for the junior doctors.

“The general body meeting that was supposed to be held tonight (Saturday) could not be conducted as several of our friends could not come. Without their opinion we cannot take any decision,” Bhattacharya added.

“We want to return to work and want the stalemate to end from the bottom of our hearts.”

He was speaking around four hours after chief minister Mamata Banerjee adopted a flexible stand and made a fervent appeal to the junior doctors to resume their duties.

Although the junior doctors initially greeted Mamata’s statement with scepticism, the mood appeared to have changed after a core group gauged the opinion of junior doctors and students from each batch.

Bhattacharya said that if the chief minister extended one hand, the agitators would extend 10. “Amader manoniya (our honourable) is sensible enough. She is like a mother. She will definitely consider this issue. We are always open to a discussion. You extend one hand; we would extend 10. You take one step, we’ll take 10.”

A statement he read out said: “The chief minister today said that the health system cannot continue in this way. We also believe truly that the health system cannot be run in this way.”

The junior doctors sought to drill holes in several statements Mamata had made during the media conference, including the announcement that some juniors doctors had turned up at Nabanna to meet the chief minister.

Earlier in the evening, soon after Mamata had concluded her media conference, Bhattacharya had said: “She has not focused on our valid demands. The CM is trying to say that we are against the solution and conversation. But we want her to come to NRS, listen to us and take necessary steps.”

After this briefing around 7pm, most of the students went into the academic building from their seat of protest in front of the emergency.

In the next round, the junior doctors met on the ground floor of the academic building till 10.45pm. Sources said the core group collected the opinion of students from each academic batch.

Sources said the senior doctors, who had addressed the protesters earlier, had advised them not to close their doors too soon. “Keep an exit point open to end the protests honourably,” said nephrologist Arpita Ray Chaudhury, who is with SSKM Hospital.

In the afternoon, the junior doctors had expressed their inability to meet Mamata at Nabanna, saying: “We feel deeply upset, hopeless and we feel highly insecure regarding our representatives meeting with her behind closed doors.”

In the evening, while the NRS junior doctors were debating their course of action, around 2km away at Calcutta Medical college a group of junior doctors were discussing “what if” the government acted tough.

“What will we do if the government decides to impose Esma?” one junior doctor asked his batch mates. “She is saying she won’t use it. But what if she does? Did you ask the dadas (seniors) about it?”

Ultimately, they left it to the seniors to decide the next course of action.

Mamata had told the media conference: “There are some willing people who want to join. Let them join. Eight, ten junior doctors came. They want to join, let them join. Jara kaaj suru korte chai, tara suru koruk (Those who want to start working, let them). Let them join one by one. In this way, one day the dam will break, they will all join.”

Before Mamata addressed the media conference, the director of medical education, Pradip Kumar Mitra, had reached NRS.

Sources said Mitra met a group of junior doctors at the principal’s office and told them their demands had been met. But a breakthrough eluded them because of differences over the venue of the talks.