PATNA: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav has voiced support for the growing demand to cancel the recently conducted Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) exams. The exams, held under controversial circumstances, have sparked widespread protests among aspirants.
Yadav, the former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, returned to the state capital late on Saturday night after a tour of the Seemanchal region, where he was mobilizing party support ahead of the assembly elections scheduled for next year.
Demonstrating his solidarity with the protesting candidates, Yadav visited the Gardani Bagh locality in Patna, where a 24-hour demonstration has been underway. The protesters are demanding the cancellation of the 70th Combined Competitive Exams (CCE), conducted on December 13, citing allegations of irregularities and mismanagement.
This latest development has further intensified the debate surrounding the fairness and transparency of competitive examinations conducted by the BPSC.
Accompanied by close aide and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Yadav, the former Deputy CM chatted with the protesters for a while, before declaring "We are fully with the students on the issue. The Nitish Kumar government will have to order cancellation of the exams".
"For every step that you take, Tejashwi is ready to move four paces forward", he told the protesters.
His visit came a day after Yadav had held a video chat with protesters, many of whom urged the young leader to take time off to support their stir.
Notably, hundreds of aspirants at an exam centre in the city had boycotted the tests, alleging that question papers had been leaked.
The allegation has met with a strong denial from the BPSC, which claimed the disruptions were caused by "anti-social elements" who had turned up as part of a "conspiracy" to get the exams cancelled.
The Commission, however, has ordered re-examination for about 5,000 candidates who had been assigned the "Bapu Pariksha Parisar", which was at the centre of the controversy.
Nonetheless, there have been demands that since fairness of the tests was under cloud in view of paper leak allegations, exams for all the 912 centres, where close to five lakh candidates had appeared, be cancelled and held afresh.
