India's education minister resigned Saturday, handing a major victory to youth protesters who had demanded he step down over examination paper leaks.

The announcement sparked jubilant celebrations among demonstrators who had spent weeks calling for accountability.

"We have done it," Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, which led the protests, told cheering supporters gathered at the Jantar Mantar protest site in New Delhi.

The demonstrations, among India's largest in recent years, became a major political flashpoint and one of the toughest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. Opposition lawmakers backed the protesters' demands for action and repeatedly disrupted Parliament.

"Considering the situation that has arisen at Jantar Mantar and across the country, so that anti-national forces do not take advantage of this situation ... I have sent my resignation letter to the Prime Minister," Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan wrote in a post on X.

"I deeply respect the aspirations, feelings and legitimate expectations of the country's youth."

Pradhan announced his resignation on X as police fired tear gas to disperse protesters in New Delhi, just hours before protest leaders were scheduled to begin another round of talks with government ministers.

Pradhan, 57, is a senior leader of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party and has long been regarded as a rising figure within the party. He has previously been mentioned as a potential future BJP leader.

A minister since Modi first took office in 2014, Pradhan has held the petroleum and natural gas, steel, skill development and education portfolios. He became education minister in 2021. His father was a veteran BJP leader who served as a junior federal minister between 1998 and 2004.

Pradhan's resignation is "a victory of peace, patience & perseverance," activist Sonam Wangchuk, who was on a 26-day hunger strike in support of the youth movement, wrote on X.

Young protesters at the Jantar Mantar site shouted "Jai Hind," a patriotic slogan meaning "Victory to India," as the national anthem played over loudspeakers and sweets were distributed among the crowd. At least 1,000 police officers stood nearby guarding the area, according to Reuters journalists at the scene.

The leak of the high-profile medical college entrance exam in May, which led to the cancellation of the results and the government ordering a retest, affected about 2 million students.

Supporters of India's youth-led "cockroach" movement had been protesting since June, but tensions escalated after police on Monday injured dozens of students, using batons and firing tear gas to disperse crowds marching toward Parliament.

The protests also reflect broader public anger over job shortages, corruption and government accountability.

"The young generation is here. This is a win for the Constitution," protester Tluanga Ralte said while carrying a copy of the Indian Constitution at the protest site after the minister's resignation. "We are not a lazy generation."

Federal authorities on Saturday again restricted internet access and closed 18 metro stations in an effort to limit protests in the capital.

Pradhan is only the second minister to resign over a scandal since Modi came to power in 2014. M.J. Akbar resigned as junior foreign minister in October 2018 to fight allegations of sexual harassment made by more than a dozen women during India's #MeToo movement.

Students, youth activists and opposition supporters have staged protests in recent days in the states of West Bengal, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, carrying placards demanding Pradhan's resignation and boycotting classes in some areas.