Mamata Banerjee on Thursday offered to resign as the Bengal Chief Minister asking for people's exoneration for failing to resolve the logjam arising out of the statewide junior doctors' "cease work" that entered its 34th day on Thursday.

The junior doctors had been agitating in demand of justice for the post graduate lady doctor of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital who was last month brutally raped and murdered inside the seminar hall of the Chest Medicine Department.

Banerjee's offer to quit came after two-and-a-half-hour high drama over whether the Government would allow the meeting with a 32-0member delegation of the doctors to be live-streamed.

"It seems that there are some people who are not interested in a solution to the problem … they want my Chair … then so be it … I am ready to resign as I don't have a yen for the Chair … if my quitting solves brings relief to the people then so be it … let the doctors join work and serve the poor people," Banerjee said leading to a prompt interpretation from critics who read her statement as "a last effort to emotionally blackmail the masses."

While the doctors who had bus-rode to State secretariat Nabanna to meet the Chief Minister following a Government invite to end the impasse pressed for a live-streaming of the event the Government (read the Chief Minister) would reject the demand outright. This, even top officials including Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, Home Secretary Nandini Chakravorty and DGP Rajeev Kumar shuttled with messages between the Chief Minister and the doctors waiting outside the Nabanna Sabha Ghar.

Banerjee told the camera with folding hands, "I beg your forgiveness as I could not bring the doctors to the talking table … I apologise to the people of Bengal who expected an end to the RG Kar impasse today. They (junior doctors) came to Nabanna but did not sit for the meeting. Though there was no meeting I still request them to go back to work … We have been waiting for two-and-a-half hours as we did two previous days but there was no response … my doctor brothers and sisters brought 34 member delegation against the Government stipulation of 15 … we agreed … but they were demanding live-streaming of the proceedings which is not possible in formal meetings … they are giving example of Supreme Court proceedings being telecast but what the Supreme Court can do we cannot … besides this matter is subjudice and if during the meeting any derogatory statement is made against the judiciary as is being done in the social media then who will take that responsibility ... but they would not take our suggestion and would not enter the meeting hall despite coming to  Nabanna … where as I was waiting with my team of officials."

Alleging that about 27 people had died due to the doctors' cease work and about 1,500 cardiac operations had been postponed, the Chief Minister said she was not taking any action despite Supreme Court clearance.

"The Court has given a deadline to them to join work … but the doctors have defied that even," Banerjee said in what the junior doctors called a "bid to instigate the judiciary against the medical staff" adding, "I have ESMA with me but will not use against the doctors … as I want good conscience to prevail and I want them to return to work so that common people do not suffer."

Government had been under a popular pressure --- unprecedented in the 13 years of Trinamool Congress rule --- that tended to mount by the day with thousands of people, mostly women coming out on the streets, taking control of the nights on more than one occasion besides standing by the agitating doctors who were presently staging a sit-in demonstration in front of the Swasthya Bhavan.

From roadside vendors, to home makers, to students, to people from other professions were coming in hordes to supply food and other incidentals even in the dead of nights to the agitating doctors.

The junior doctors on their behalf said that they wanted the proceedings to be live streamed because there was a need to bring transparency. "The way the evidence was destroyed by the police, the way the health syndicate is still being allowed to continue … the way the Kolkata Commissioner of Police and a DCP and the Health Secretary and Directors of Health Services and Education were being continued on their posts despite allegations that evidence tampering took place under their nose … an atmosphere of distrust has emerged … we wanted live streaming of the meeting to end that distrust but the Chief Minister would not listen to us," doctors said hoping "the gates of Nabanna would open before us once again though it was shut on our face today."