On June 13, 2026, the party made it official: a new campaign is on to deal with paper leaks, irregularities and the unemployment problem. It’s all about some hard-nosed accountability and reforms that put the student first. With Rahul at the helm, the focus is on making admissions and hiring fair, and the first of the student get-togethers will be in Kota on June 17.
What the campaign means for students
Congress has been touting this as a way to bring some much-needed relief and even-handedness to those in the exam hall. They want to de-centralise NEET, scrap the fees and put a stop to the kind of irregularities we keep seeing. In practical terms, for a student, it could be a matter of less money out of pocket, not having to travel as far and having a system you can trust.
The idea is to have a room full of the people who have been let down by these kinds of scandals – from the aspirants to the educators. K.C. Venugopal, a general secretary for the party, put it bluntly: the government has let the side of millions of young people down when it comes to keeping the recruitment and education system above board, while costs go up and papers keep leaking.
First phase schedule and outreach
We start in Kota on June 17, 2026, and then in July we’ll be in a few of the big education towns. There are dates set for Prayagraj (Allahabad) on the 10th, Patna the 11th and Delhi on the 14th. Venugopal has billed this as the opening act of a wider conversation with the youth.
To make sure they’re heard, the party is going to be very hands-on, both in person and online, at campuses and coaching spots. Here is how the outreach is to be done:
– Invitations, in bulk, in every form
– A presence on university and school grounds
– Some face time at the coaching centres and where the young people are
– Live streams and a bit of social media noise
– Talking to students, direct and across the country
Demands and accountability push
In its own words, the party says this is about putting the demands Rahul Gandhi has been making into the open. They are looking for some answers from the top and want to be seen as the ones standing up for the students.
You will hear them calling for the following from Congress:
– A decentralised NEET
– No more examination fees
– To go after the rackets behind the paper leaks with the law
– For the highest in government to answer for it
– And for the Union Education Minister to step down
Political stakes and responses
It is a statement from the top, with Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi in charge, and it is one of accusation. They say the Centre has been failing India’s young people. The campaign is set to put a fine point on the leaks and the jobless numbers, with the NSUI, Youth Congress and the local units all on board.
Gandhi has been in with the students at the centre of the storm – Sarthak Sidhant, some of the NEET hopefuls and the family of Pradeep Meghwal, to name a few. He has been on the record about his issues with the UG paper, the CBSE’s on-screen marking and the hiccups in the CUET.
Then there was the hearing at the apex court. After the Centre told the SC that the PM was on top of the re-examination, Gandhi put out a post on X: ‘PM Modi also personally supervised the NEET paper leak.’ The BJP was not having it. Sambit Patra and Amit Malviya were quick to call him out, with one term for it being ‘outrageous’ and another, misinformation.
What to watch next
The test in the weeks to come is if these conventions can be made to count in policy. From Kota to Delhi, the aim is to fix the public eye on the cost and the honesty of the exams.
And for the institutions, the message is plain: do something about the fees and the NEET setup and the leaks, or you will have an organised group of young people to deal with in the press.
