The protesting junior doctors at NRS Medical College and Hospital will attend a meeting on Saturday morning, which will have representatives of other medical colleges as well, to decide whether they would meet chief minister Mamata Banerjee at Nabanna.

Till late on Friday, the junior doctors at NRS were split into two camps. One group was in favour of going to Nabanna to meet Mamata and the other insisted that she visit the hospital to meet them.

Both camps, however, agreed that since the protest had spread to other medical colleges in Bengal, the decision on whether they would visit Nabanna or not should be taken in consultation with representatives of the institutions.

The protest started at NRS after two junior doctors were assaulted following the death of an elderly patient there late on Monday.

The chief minister has invited “three to four” representatives of the protesting doctors for talks at Nabanna after five senior doctors met her on Friday evening.

Mamata’s offer for talks was conveyed to the striking doctors by Pradip Mitra, the director of medical education, who visited the NRS hospital around 8.15pm on Friday.

Sources said Mitra urged the junior doctors to meet the chief minister at Nabanna on Friday evening, saying she was waiting for them. But the doctors leading the agitation said it would not be fair for NRS doctors to go to Nabanna.

Mitra later told the junior doctors that the chief minister would meet them in Nabanna at 5pm on Saturday.

“Mitra came around 8.15pm. He said the chief minister was waiting for us at Nabanna and we should leave for the secretariat immediately. But that was not possible since junior doctors from other medical colleges have also started ceasework in our support and we should not take any decision without consulting them,” a junior doctor at NRS hospital said.

After Mitra left, around 20 junior doctors on the NRS campus held a meeting in the UNB building that continued for over an hour.

A section of agitators, however, was against going to Nabanna. “We won’t go to Nabanna. The CM should come to us,” a junior doctor sent a message to one of the five doctors who met Mamata on Friday.

“The movement is not being held under the banner of any organisation. The absence of any central leadership is making it difficult for us to arrive at a decision quickly,” said a leader of the agitation at NRS.

“The movement has now spread to other hospitals across Bengal and even other states. Our seniors are resigning to express their solidarity with us. We had held many agitations before but this overwhelming support was never there. This means we can’t take decisions without consulting others,” another leader said.

“Had this offer come four days earlier, today’s situation would not have arisen. A meeting will be held on Saturday morning, which will be attended by representatives of other medical colleges. We will decide who among us will be there at the meeting with the chief minister.”

Earlier in the day, the junior doctors on ceasework formed a platform named Save the Saviours. A core group of the collective will talk to all doctors supporting the agitation and decide their course of action.

The junior doctors also demanded that Mamata visit Paribaha Mukhopadhyay, one of the two junior doctors assaulted at NRS, at the Institute of Neurosciences in Mullickbazar.