34% of candidates for NEET-UG retest from just 3 states | India News

NEW DELHI: One in every three candidates registered for the June 21 NEET-UG re-exam come from just three states — Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan — according to data from National Testing Agency (NTA).NEET-UG — involving more than 22.7 lakh medical aspirants — is the single-largest national entrance test of the country. It is the gateway to nearly all UG medical seats, with students competing every year for limited places. The retest was necessitated due to the cancellation of the May 3 exam due to the question paper being leaked.UP alone accounts for 3,56,291 candidates, or 15.7% of the total — the largest share of any state or UT. Maharashtra follows with 2,22,905 (9.8%) and Rajasthan with 2,03,470 candidates (8.9%). Together, the three states make up 34.4% of all registrations.Bihar (1,56,061), Karnataka (1,45,466) and Tamil Nadu (1,42,489) round off the top six. These six states account for nearly 54% of the entire candidate pool, underlining how heavily registrations are centered on a few large states.The next tier includes Madhya Pradesh (1,18,162), Kerala (1,13,609) and West Bengal (1,09,527), each contributing around 5%. Gujarat (79,411), Telangana (73,058), Andhra Pradesh (65,790), Haryana (65,706) and Delhi (58,643) follow, with Odisha and Jammu & Kashmir close behind at over 56,000 each.The eight Hindi-belt states — UP, Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi — together make up about 44% of all candidates. The five southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh contribute 23.8%.At the other end, the smallest numbers come from Lakshadweep (141), Daman & Diu (666) and Andaman & Nicobar Islands (882). Among northeastern states, Manipur leads with 9,475 candidates, followed by Arunachal Pradesh (4,921), Tripura (4,684), Meghalaya (4,164) and Nagaland (4,128). The figures cover all states and UTs.