UP Cong demands Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over NEET paper leak

A day ahead of the NEET-2026 re-examination, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Ajay Rai on Saturday demanded the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, citing alleged paper leaks and suicides among medical aspirants.

Addressing a press conference, Rai alleged that several national and state-level examinations had witnessed paper leaks or irregularities over the past 12 years. He claimed that apart from NEET examinations in 2018, 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2026, the AIPMT (now NEET) examination in 2015 and multiple other recruitment and entrance tests were also affected by anomalies.

“I pray that God helps them conduct the re-NEET on June 21, though a dozen lives have been lost due to suicides by aspirants and many families have been ruined,” Rai said.

Questioning the government’s handling of examination security, Rai said authorities were discussing the use of the Army for transporting question papers but had not addressed accountability. He alleged that examination papers, once printed at government presses, are now being handled by private entities.

Rai further claimed that families spend around ₹3.5 lakh crore annually on education and expressed concern over rising unemployment among graduates, the decline in government school enrolment, closure of government schools, and an increase in student suicides over the past decade. He alleged that nearly 29.1% of graduate youth are unemployed in the country.