Panshul Bansal, who secured All India Rank 2 with a 99.9999 percentile in the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination, told NDTV that the cancellation of the original examination initially left him disappointed.
Panshul Bansal, who was among the toppers in the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination, said as protests raged over the paper leak, he chose to stay at home and study.
Bansal, who secured All India Rank 2 with a 99.9999 percentile in the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination, told NDTV that while the cancellation of the original examination initially left him disappointed, he eventually saw it as an opportunity to improve his performance.
“I thought, why should I go to the protest? Instead, I could be studying at home and improving my skills and improving my score,” Bansal told NDTV’s Shiv Aroor.
His remarks come at a time when protests have intensified, with thousands of students taking to the streets and opposition parties demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Bansal, a student of KR Mangalam World School, in New Delhi’s Greater Kailash, scored 715 marks in the re-examination.
The original NEET-UG examination for admission to undergraduate medical courses was held on May 3, but was cancelled on May 12 after allegations that the question paper had been leaked. The CBI is investigating the leak.
A fresh examination was conducted on June 21 under heightened security arrangements, and the results were declared on July 16.
Recalling his reaction when the first examination was cancelled, Bansal said he initially felt “despair and sadness”.
“Initially, I had a feeling of despair and sadness. But after one or two hours, I looked at it from a positive perspective and got motivated and determined to do better this time,” he said.
Bansal revealed that he had scored around 706 marks in the original examination before improving to 715 in the re-test.
Asked what changed during the additional weeks of preparation, he said he did not alter his routine.
“I did not change anything in my schedule. I simply followed the same routine. I just felt that in the last one-and-a-half months I had to give everything I could and leave the rest to God,” Bansal told NDTV.
Initially, he questioned why the examination had been cancelled, particularly when he believed he had performed well enough to secure admission to a government medical college.
