Mayawati hits back at Rahul Gandhi; asks him to worry about his own party
Lucknow(PTI): BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday rejected Rahul Gandhi's claim that she had spurned an alliance offer from his Congress during the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, asking him to get his own house in order instead of worrying about other parties.
Gandhi had on Saturday said that the Congress reached out to the BSP leader, offering her the chief minister's post for contesting the assembly polls together, but she did not respond.
Hitting back at the Gandhi scion, Mayawati said all the allegations levelled by him are wrong and reflect his party's "casteist mindset" and feeling of malice.
"Yesterday, the former president of the Congress had made some remarks regarding our party and especially about its chief, which clearly reflect the casteist mindset and a feeling of malice towards the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). It also shows similar feelings towards deprived sections of the society, especially the dalits," she told reporters here.
"Before levelling any allegation on the BSP, Rahul Gandhi must introspect," she said.
"The former president of the Congress is unable to manage his scattered house, but is raising fingers on the style of working of the BSP. This clearly shows the tremendous anger and hatred towards the BSP. Instead of worrying about other parties, Rahul Gandhi should think about his own party. This is my advice," she added.
The BSP supremo also accused the Congress of failing to take any concrete step during its long tenure to improve the social and economical condition of dalits and other deprived sections of the society. She also alleged that the community was not given full benefits of various other facilities, including reservation.
She also alleged that it was because of this attitude of the Congress that Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, who was the then law minister in the Congress government, had tendered his resignation.
The BSP leader also questioned the Congress' claims of preventing the BJP from coming to power.
"The Congress had fought the previous (2017) UP assembly elections with the Samajwadi Party. Despite this, it could not prevent the BJP from coming to power. The Congress should answer this," she added.
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
