7 of 10 toppers in MP exam wrote test at BJP MLA’s centre, Cong alleges rigging

State Home Minister Narottam Mishra, however, ruled out any irregularities in the conduct of the exam and accused the Congress of resorting to propaganda ahead of the Assembly polls.

“A total 114 participants have cleared the exam at that particular centre, why are questions being raised about only seven toppers. The Congress is trying to mislead the people with its propaganda,” Mishra said.

When contacted, Kushwaha told The Indian Express: “This institution belongs to me. It used to be an engineering college, which shut down because of low admissions. It has a computer lab and other facilities which are now used as a test centre. We rent out the place for conducting examinations. This (patwari) examination is conducted by the Employees Selection Board (ESB), you should ask them what happened.”
Nearly 9.8 lakh students took the exam for the posts of Group 2 and Sub Group 4 patwari on April 26. The results were announced on June 30, followed by a list of the top 10 scorers on July 10.

Controversy erupted after seven of the toppers were found to have taken the test at the NRI College in Gwalior which is owned by BJP MLA Sanjeev Kushwaha.

Suggesting irregularities in the exam, Congress leader and former Union minister ???? Arun Yadav alleged that “most of the toppers have one thing in common — they signed their answer sheets in Hindi” and questioned why would those who score well in English sign in Hindi.

“In the body-marking column (in the answer sheet), one selected candidate wrote in English: ‘Cut on mark nose’; whereas the correct English would be ‘cut mark on nose’’. Did she not get 100 percent in English? The BJP should explain,” Yadav said.

Yadav also alleged one of the seven toppers scored 185 marks in the exam despite the ESB removing 11 questions over incorrect options having been provided as answers.

Yadav also asked why none of the coaching centres claimed to have trained the seven for the exam, as is the usual trend these days.

“The selection percentage from this NRI College is higher than the coaching institutes in Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar, where IAS coaching is provided. How is this possible?” Yadav said.

ESB chairman Malay Shrivastav said: “We are not investigating this issue. The examination was conducted following proper rules.”