Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleges irregularities in NEET results, seeks probe

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday, 7 June, slammed the Modi government over alleged irregularities in the NEET medical entrance exam and called for the resolution of students' "legitimate complaints" through an investigation.

Several aspirants of the medical entrance exam NEET have alleged inflation of marks which led to a record 67 candidates bagging the top rank, including six from the same exam centre.

The National Testing Agency (NTA), however, denied any irregularities and said the changes made in the NCERT textbooks and grace marks for losing time at the examination centres are some of the reasons behind the students scoring higher marks.

In a post in Hindi on X, Gandhi said, "First the NEET exam paper was leaked and now the students allege that there has been a scam in its results as well. Serious questions are being raised on 6 students of the same centre getting 720 out of 720 marks and many kinds of irregularities are coming to the fore."

There are reports of many children committing suicide across the country after the results were announced, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said and added that this is very sad and shocking.

"Why is the government ignoring the voices of lakhs of students? Students want answers to legitimate questions related to the rigging in the NEET exam results," the Congress general secretary said.

Is it not the government's responsibility to resolve these "legitimate complaints" by conducting an investigation, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked.

Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday demanded a probe into the alleged irregularities in the NEET medical entrance exam.

"Candidates have expressed apprehensions of irregularities regarding the NEET exam and its result wherein several candidates from the same centre got full marks, and candidates with close roll numbers topped, " he said on X.

"Many such aspects are surfacing which increases the apprehensions of irregularities in the examination," he said.

Gehlot said the matter concerns the future of lakhs of students and the credibility of the medical profession. So, the central government and the NTA should take it seriously and investigate it to ensure justice.

Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala on 6 June claimed there is a possibility of "huge irregularities" in the results of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG) for medical courses and the government should ensure accountability.

He alleged the irregularities have affected the future of around 24 lakh children. He said the NTA and the government should answer and also ensure accountability.

He alleged, "67 candidates got 720 out of 720 marks in NEET, that is 100 per cent marks. There are 67 toppers this year. This in itself seems 'impossible' because marks are deducted for every wrong answer in the NEET question paper," he alleged.

"Is it possible that 67 people have given 100 per cent correct answers? Is this a coincidence or an experiment?" he asked, saying that in previous years, there have been one single topper except in 2023 when there were two toppers.

However, the NTA on 6 June clarified that the increase in cut off and number of toppers in the NEET-UG reflect the competitive nature of the exam and maintained that the test's integrity has not been compromised.

The clarification came amid allegations of irregularities in medical entrance exam NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test) -- conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 abroad -- and inflation of marks.

"The increase in cutoff reflects the competitive nature of the examination and the higher performance standards achieved by the candidates this year," a senior NTA official said.

"The number of candidates who appeared in 2023 was 20,38,596 while the number of candidates who appeared in 2024 increased to 23,33,297. The increase in candidates naturally led to an increase in high scorers due to a larger pool of candidates," the official added.

On the grace marks awarded to some students, the NTA said a few petitions were filed by the NEET-UG before the high courts of Punjab and Haryana, Delhi and Chhattisgarh raising concerns of loss of exam time during the conduct of the test at some exam centres.