Chandigarh: The already charged political atmosphere in poll-bound Punjab was jolted by a new controversy on Thursday when opposition parties alleged irregularities in the Punjab PCS Mains 2026 results. The AAP-led administration rejected the allegations, saying it was a “misinterpretation of statistical data”.The recruitment is for naib tehsildars and paramedical staff at Baba Farid University of Health Sciences.Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) maintained that the examination was conducted fairly and transparently under stringent security arrangements. “There has been no irregularity. Do not fall for or spread any such rumours,” it said in a statement.Punjab Congress president Pargat Singh, former Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal accused AAP govt of compromising the fairness of the recruitment process and demanded an independent probe.Pargat posted on X: “Candidates have raised concerns over 10-11 selections from individual rooms at four centres; over 40% shortlisting in certain rooms; selection rates of 24.2% at one centre and 2.8% in a room at another; consecutive roll numbers appearing among selected candidates; and alleged inclusion of absent candidates’ roll numbers.”The state Congress chief asked CM Bhagwant Mann to “answer these questions” and added: “PPSC chairman must clarify. An impartial inquiry must be ordered. Punjab’s youth deserve a fair recruitment process.”Jakhar said: “What is the difference between the hijacking of the PCS examination and the NEET paper leak case?” He alleged that the results showed an “unusual pattern of selections” from particular examination rooms, claiming that 10 to 11 candidates had been selected from individual rooms. He also pointed to 86 candidates allegedly qualifying in groups of three or four consecutive roll numbers.“How is it possible in a competitive examination like PCS that nearly one-fourth of the candidates appearing from a particular centre, or from a few selected rooms, could qualify, unless some kind of ‘special arrangement’ had been put in place?” he asked and demanded a CBI probe.Sukhbir Badal also attacked state govt, posting: “Same rooms producing bulk selections, skewed rates, consecutive roll numbers, even absent candidates in the result. This is not coincidence, this is a betrayal of merit… This exposes a deep-rooted nexus of corruption.”Alleging that “the CM’s residence has seemingly been reduced to a hub of corruption, where favouritism beats merit”, Badal demanded, “The direct involvement of CM Bhagwant Mann and his wife, Dr Gurpreet Kaur, must be investigated.”He further wrote in the post, “We demand an immediate independent probe & audit. Original answer sheets and digital records must be secured. The future of Punjab’s youth will not be sacrificed to partiality and greed.”PPSC refuted the charges, saying: “The allegations about PPSC Mains examination results appear to come from a misreading of data patterns… The figures cited may be numerically correct, but they are being read as evidence of irregularity when they are ordinary statistical outcomes.”On the issue of consecutive roll numbers, it said such patterns were observed in previous examinations as well, citing 26 such ‘groups’ among 153 shortlisted candidates in 2018 and 28 of 177 in 2020. In comparison, the 2025 shortlist contained 118 groups among 751 candidates, it said.The claim that 24% of shortlisted candidates were from one centre was incorrect, it said. The exam was held at 12 centres in Patiala, and centre strengths ranged from 118-553 candidates, with a total of 3,959 candidates taking the exam.“The highest number of candidates shortlisted from any single centre is 106 of 751 or 14.1%. That centre also had the second-highest number of candidates (496),” it said.
