NEET latecomers' missed exam sparks BJP-Cong clash. Bengaluru police does a fact-check

Police said that traffic conditions in Bengaluru were normal on the day of the NEET exam, adding that traffic personnel facilitated movement wherever required.

Published on: Jun 23, 2026, 16:22:13 IST

Edited by Asmita Ravi Shankar

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Amid a heated political slugfest over a Karnataka Congress mega rally in Bengaluru causing students to miss the NEET-UG retest on Sunday, the city traffic police fact-checked the claims and revealed that candidates departing for examination centres later and taking longer routes were the actual reasons some missed the retest.

Bengaluru Traffic Police arrived at the conclusion that traffic congestion was not the reason for students' late arrival at examination centres for the NEET retest. (ANI)

Bengaluru traffic police said on Tuesday that it analysed CCTV footage and verified the routes taken by NEET students to determine why some candidates arrived at their examination centres after the cut-off time for entry.

Justifying its measures, the city police said traffic conditions in Bengaluru were normal on the day of the retest, adding that traffic personnel facilitated movement wherever required.

ALSO READ | ‘Inconvenience’, ‘half-truths’: Tejasvi Surya vs Priyank Kharge over Congress rally ‘disrupting’ NEET exam in Bengaluru

"The delay was primarily due to late departure from residence and route selection," it added.

Timeline found by Bengaluru traffic cops

Bengaluru traffic police shared a detailed timeline that it established by analysing CCTV footage. According to their findings:

12:57 pm: A candidate departed from their residence in R.T Nagar

1:30 pm: The prescribed cut-off time for entry into the examination centre

1:33 pm: Candidate arrived at the examination centre after the cut-off time

Police further found that:

1. Candidates left late for the examination centre, and in this case, it was just 33 minutes prior to the cut-off time.

2. Analysis of the route selected by the candidate revealed that they travelled on a longer path, despite the availability of a shorter route, which would have enabled them to reach the centre more quickly.

3. Traffic conditions on the day were "generally normal", with no "significant congestion" attributable to the public event.

4. Traffic police personnel deployed on the route were seen "facilitating the candidate's movement wherever required."

Bengaluru Traffic Police arrived at the conclusion that traffic congestion was not the reason for students' late arrival at examination centres for the NEET retest.

BJP vs Congress over mega rally 'disruption'

BJP MP Tejasvi Surya and Karnataka home minister Priyank Kharge sparred over the ruling Congress's mega rally in the city on the day of the NEET retest.

Surya alleged that the rally caused students to miss the exams as they arrived late due to "massive traffic disruption."

"The Congress party could have chosen any other day for its rally at Palace Grounds. Instead, it chose the very day thousands of students are appearing for NEET. As massive traffic disruptions choked Bengaluru, many students were delayed, some reaching exam centres in panic and having to plead with authorities to be allowed inside," Surya said in a post on X.

He added that thankfully, some examination authorities accommodated the students and provided them compensatory time.

ALSO READ | ‘Ask PM to hold Pariksha Pe Charcha’: Kharge counters Surya's claim that students missed re-NEET ‘due to Cong event’

The BJP leader further alleged that Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had been shedding "crocodile tears" over students and examinations, adding that if his concern was genuine, then the party would have avoided the mega rally on the NEET exam day.

Congress leader and state home minister Priyank Kharge responded to Surya without naming him and described him as a "serial misinformation MP".

Kharge said that Surya's allegations were "half-truths" and a "manufactured outrage".

Besides the candidate from R.T Nagar, Kharge said that of the 720 students allotted the RC College as their NEET examination centre, 142 were absent and three others missed the test.

In a post on X, Kharge detailed that one of the three students who missed the exam was travelling from Magadi, was unable to get a bus on time and reached the centre late, resulting in her missing the retest. Another candidate, he said, arrived at the examination with an old hall ticket -- from the first exam conducted on May 3 -- and thus was not permitted to write the exam.

According to the home minister, only one candidate from R.T Nagar missed the exam.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Asmita Ravi Shankar
Asmita Ravi Shankar is a Senior Content Producer at Hindustan Times, based in New Delhi. She covers breaking news and focuses on crime, geopolitics, and the domestic political landscape. She has an eye for the intricacies in criminal investigations and a keen interest in how diplomacy and complexities affect politics, within India and globally. She has written extensively about Operation Sindoor, the Iran-US conflict, elections in India, Trump tariffs and diplomacy. Asmita also engages in multimedia storytelling, using interactive elements to enhance readers' news experience and build a high-traffic news ecosystem. With nearly three years of experience in the journalism industry, Asmita has been with HT for a little over a year. She has previously worked with online news teams at Outlook India and Network18, covering a wide range of beats and building her specialisation. In HT, she has been recognised for her comprehensive reportage and her contribution to coverage of the Bihar assembly election results, having single-handedly driven over 2 million users on that day. Asmita earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, the University of Delhi. She went on to earn a postgraduate diploma in integrated journalism from the Asian College of Journalism, sharpening her skills in multimedia storytelling, editing and sourcing to enrich her reportage. Additionally, Asmita holds a degree in Bharatanatyam from the Pracheen Kala Kendra. She is also a teacher of the Indian classical dance form. When not working on news, Asmita can be found dancing, binge-watching true crime docu-series, cooking and exploring various genres of music.Read More

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