Activist Sonam Wangchuk on Friday ended his hunger strike after 26 days at Gurugram’s Medanta Hospital in the presence of Union ministers Jitendra Singh and JP Nadda.

A video by PTI showed Singh helping Wangchuk sit up on his hospital bed, and Nadda helping him sip from a cup.

“I am grateful and happy to break my fast,” the activist was heard saying in the video.

Wangchuk said that 65 members of Parliament from various parties had urged him to break his fast. “This was done after a long negotiation on various conditions and in view of possible violence in the country,” he said in a social media post. “I will explain the conditions in detail in a separate video very soon.”

Abhijeet Dipke, the chief of the political campaign Cockroach Janta Party, said on social media that the group was relieved and grateful that Wangchuk had ended his hunger strike.

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“Thank you, sir, for your extraordinary courage and sacrifice,” he said, addressing Wangchuk. “By putting your own life on the line, you awakened the conscience of an entire nation. Your life is far too precious to this country.”

Dipke said that the Cockroach Janta Party’s protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar would continue till Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigns.

Wangchuk began his hunger strike on June 28. His fast was part of a protest led by the Cockroach Janta Party demanding Pradhan’s resignation on account of the alleged mismanagement of competitive examinations.

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On Saturday morning, the activist was forcibly removed from the protest site at Jantar Mantar and taken to the Safdarjung Hospital by the police.

On Tuesday, Wangchuk was discharged from the Safdarjung Hospital and admitted to the Medanta Hospital in Gurugram. The Delhi High Court had allowed him to be shifted to the Medanta Hospital, saying that doing so was necessary to protect his fundamental right to life and liberty.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.