Amid mounting controversy over alleged irregularities in NEET UG 2026 exam, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister (CM) Vijay on Wednesday has renewed the state’s long-standing demand to abolish the pan-India national medical entrance exam. He urged the Centre to allow admissions for medical aspirants on the basis of Class 12 exam results.
In a statement posted on ‘X’, Vijay contended that repeated paper leaks have laid bare fundamental flaws in the centralised examination system. Following this, he called for a return to state-level admission processes that prioritise consistent academic performance over a single high-stakes test.
TN CM Vijay
Vijay reflects on similar lapse dating back to 2024
While referring to the latest paper leak allegations, the actor-politician said the incident was not an isolated lapse, but part of a troubling pattern. He recalled that back in 2025, the NEET exam had been compromised in a similar way, and FIRs had been registered across six states, after which the CBI was entrusted with probing the case.
A high-level expert panel chaired by ISRO’s former chief K Radhakrishnan had subsequently recommended 95 reforms to strengthen the system. However, the recurrence of a leak within two years, leading to its cancellation, demonstrates what Vijay termed ‘conclusive proof’ of systemic weaknesses in a national-level test.
TN’s long-standing opposition to NEET
Cops checking a NEET candidate's documents before exam
It is noteworthy that since NEET’s inception, Tamil Nadu has consistently opposed it, contending that the exam disproportionately favours affluent, urban and English-medium students, and allegedly pushes the students from rural and government school backgrounds far behind. CM Vijay reiterated that students from Tamil-medium and economically weaker sections face structural barriers under the current system, culminating in limitation of access to medical education despite academic merit.
His statement read, “The TN government reiterates its long-pending demand to abolish NEET and permit states to fill seats under the state MBBS, BDS and AYUSH course quotas based on Class 12 marks.”
Before NEET was made mandatory for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses in 2017, Tamil Nadu had operated a system that admitted students to medical courses on the basis of the marks they secured in their intermediate exams. The model was introduced after an exemption granted during the UPA era, and aimed to reward sustained academic effort rather than performance in a single examination.