Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharg of the Congress stepped up his counterattack on BJP MP Tejasvi Surya over the absence of three students in the NEET-UG re-examination in Bengaluru, and challenged the central government to make Prime Minister Narendra Modi face the students without an “organised” framework.
He also called for the resignation of the head of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the test NEET-UG Medical Entrance Test, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
“I challenge you to put the Prime Minister in office “Pariksha Pe Charcha” with Tejasvi Surya and all students. Do you think the students will talk to them in a coordinated manner?” Karg said while speaking to reporters, referring to Prime Minister Modi’s frequent interactions with students before exams.
As suggested by Kharjaj Suriya’s outburst was driven by personal ambition within the BJP. “He only does things to please his bosses. I think he is looking for a ministerial position in the upcoming cabinet reshuffle,” he said.
What Syria claimed
The remarks came after Suriya, the MP from Bengaluru South, targeted the Congress to fix the date of its meeting.Sankalpa Samavesha’ – a take-over event by new Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president BK Hariprasad – took place at the Palace Grounds on the same day as the NEET re-exam, which was conducted as the original exam was canceled on May 3 following a paper leak.
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However, Kharge described this as “half-truths and feigned anger”, and described Suriya as a “serial disinformation MP” without directly naming him.
How did he respond?
The Congress leader said that of the 720 students who had earmarked Ramnarayan Chilaram Government College as their examination centre, 142 students were absent overall.
Among the three who missed the exam, one was a traveler from Magdy who was unable to board the bus on time and arrived late; Another arrived with an old hall ticket from the May 3 exam and was not allowed to write the retest; The third came late from RT Nagar’s side, with the exact reason not being ascertained, Kharge claimed.
“Can I be held responsible for a student who did not take the correct hall ticket? Can I be held responsible for a student who did not take the correct bus from Majdi?” He added that the government remains sympathetic but will not accept political blame.
He cited other countries as well. “If the Congress government here has to be blamed for three students not writing NEET, people in Delhi, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh also missed it – so those respective governments are responsible,” Karg said.
In another argument over alleged bias in seeking accountability, Karg cited a January 2026 ruling in which a consumer court ordered Indian Railways to pay a fee. $9.1 lakh as compensation after a student from Uttar Pradesh missed the entrance exam because the train reached Lucknow two and a half hours late.
“Did Syria ask for this? Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation then?” Karg said.
“In the last decade alone, 89 paper leaks have taken place. Did Mr. Suriya or any of the MPs come out in favor of the students,” he further asked, adding that according to Suriya’s logic, Modi and Pradhan should be held “directly responsible for the paper leaks, the sufferings and deaths of the students, and should be removed from office.”
Regarding blaming traffic, Kharge defended the government’s preparations, citing well-known public issues.
“Bengaluru always faces a huge problem in commuting. This is a well-known fact. That’s why we issued a traffic alert. “You should blame us if we don’t issue one,” he said, adding that there was also a dedicated helpline and thousands of students had written the exam.
“Yes, even missing one person is bad. It is unfortunate. But if you want to play politics, we are ready for that too. First, apologize for the leaks. First, ask NTA chief and Dharmendra Pradhan to resign. Then come and talk to me,” he said.
Kharge also criticized Surya over a 2022 incident on an IndiGo flight. “Unfortunately for the MP’s empty box, there are no emergency exits here for him to open and escape after he made baseless allegations,” he said. The remark was an apparent reference to an episode in which Suriya, seated in the emergency exit row on a 2022 flight, accidentally dislodged a plane’s emergency door handle while boarding, grounding the plane for safety checks and delaying the flight by two hours. Syria later apologized for the incident.
The Congress convention, which Surya blamed for the traffic congestion, attracted thousands of party workers from all over Karnataka.
The examination center of RC College is located about three kilometers from the conference venue at Palace Grounds.
The NEET-UG retest, which was conducted across 5,440 centers in 551 cities, was originally held on May 3 but was canceled after an alleged leak of the question paper. It was attended by more than 22 thousand students across India.
