BJP extends support to KPSC exam candidates protesting against irregularities

Bengaluru: State BJP president B Y Vijayendra on Thursday extended the party’s support to candidates of the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) examination, who have been protesting against recurring irregularities, including recent incidents of exam paper leaks and mismanagement in the exam process.

A group of KPSC job aspirants met Vijayendra at the party’s state headquarters here. Vijayendra gave a patient hearing to the aspirants, who raised several failures by KPSC in conducting the exam.

Sharing her ordeal, one woman aspirant said she had spent over five years preparing for the KPSC exams in the hope of securing a government job.

Despite her dedication, candidates like her, particularly those taking the exam in Kannada, were the worst sufferers due to frequent paper leaks and translation errors, she said. 

“Every time exams are conducted, the process gets derailed due to mismanagement. Due to this, candidates like me are affected the most,” the candidate said.

According to her, nearly 70,000 candidates wrote the exam in Kannada and faced similar problems.

In a statement, leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Council Narayanaswamy affirmed the party’s complete support for the protesting candidates. 

Noting that 70 to 80 questions were either misprinted or poorly translated, he charged that Kannada-medium candidates were at a disadvantage because of this. 

He highlighted that though only a few students approached the court in this regard, the resulting order for re-examination was seen as partial validation of their grievances. 

Lashing out at the government, Narayanaswamy said it had failed to uphold the spirit of the order of the court and conduct error-free exams.

When aspirants raised concerns about answer sheets failing to reach centres on time, they were reportedly beaten up and detained by the police, he said. 

The LoP appealed to the government to take immediate steps to ensure fairness and transparency in the KPSC exam process. BJP chief whip in the Council N Ravikumar was present on the occasion.