The Maharashtra Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) 2026 was postponed on Saturday, just a day before it was scheduled to be conducted, after parts of the question paper were leaked. This has created a political storm for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which is already under fire over leaked NEET papers, CBSE fiasco, and other issues related to the education system.
with The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a satirical outfit, is already protesting against union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan and demanding his resignation over the NEET-UG paper leak last month, and the Maharashtra TET leak may act as more fuel in the already raging fire, with the Congress and others in the opposition targeting the government over the new issue.
The opposition takes up arms because of paper leaks
In response to the leak, The Congress said that the BJP government has become a “leak-leak government”.
“Another paper leak. The TET paper has been leaked in Maharashtra. The exam was scheduled to be held tomorrow, which has now been cancelled. Under the BJP government, there is no paper that has not been leaked. This government has become a ‘paper leak government’,” the Congress handle posted on X.
Founder of the Justice and Development Party Abhijit Deepki, who is leading the protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi against the alleged paper leaks, also reacted to the development in his home state, Maharashtra.
“TET exam paper leaked in Maharashtra. Is there any public exam left in this country that does not end with paper leak?” Debke wrote on X.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Ambadas Dhanvi, who is part of the opposition in Maharashtra said the state was also the epicenter of leak of NEET papers and claimed that the government “did not learn anything from it.”
“Maharashtra was also the epicenter of NEET paper leak. But the government did not learn anything from it. TET is a smaller exam, but the Maharashtra government did not succeed here… I think this paper leak is an insult to the Maharashtra government. This government cannot handle the TET paper. We are sad that Maharashtra has such a BJP government,” ANI quoted Dhanvi as saying.
Several people were arrested by the CBI across Maharashtra in the alleged NEET UG 2026 paper leak last month.
State Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal claimed that the “paper leaks” were no longer isolated incidents, but had become the identity of “this failed government”.
“Reports indicate that the question paper for tomorrow’s teacher eligibility test has been leaked in Thane, the stronghold of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Who is providing political protection to the racket that is destroying the hard work, dreams and future of thousands of students?” PTI quoted Sapkal as saying.
The Congress leader demanded a fair and impartial investigation into the Tet matter and strict action against those responsible.
Amol Mathil, spokesperson of the Nationalist Congress Party (SP), said that if the teacher recruitment examination papers were leaked, no exam would be safe anymore.
“Earlier, question papers of CBSE, NEET UG and many other competitive exams were leaked. This government has broken political parties and stolen MPs; now it seems it has become known for leaks and betrayal as well,” he alleged.
What happened with Maharashtra TET 2026?
The TET exam was scheduled to be conducted on June 28 in 1,028 centers across Maharashtra. but, The test has now been rescheduled after police found evidence that some questions were leaked before the test.
According to Nandkumar Bedse, director of the Maharashtra State Examination Board, the police received a tip-off early on June 27 that a few people in Bhiwandi had access to the TET exam question paper. Acting on a tip-off, Bhiwandi police conducted a raid and summoned officials from the examination board to verify the materials recovered from the site.
During the verification process, officials found that some questions in the seized documents matched the actual TET 2026 question paper. Following the discovery, a criminal case was registered and an investigation is underway.
The examination board said it has put in place several security measures during the preparation for the TET exam, keeping in mind the reported irregularities in the NEET 2026 exam. However, after the suspected paper leak came to light, the authorities decided to postpone the exam to ensure that the recruitment process remains fair and transparent.
The council said in a statement that the examination was rescheduled because it was necessary to conduct a detailed investigation and it wanted to ensure that the examination was conducted in a completely transparent manner.
A new date for the examination will be announced later on the official website of Maharashtra State Examination Board.
Meanwhile, police are continuing their investigations to determine how the newspaper was leaked and whether others were involved.
Over 4.28 lakh candidates, including working teachers, registered for MAHA TET this year, resulting in over six lakh applications for Papers 1 and 2.
