# 82 students fight for each IIT seat as exam leak reignites anger 2026-08-12T21:01:51+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Competition for India's top engineering and medical seats remains brutal, with 82 applicants for every IIT seat and 14.6 test-takers for each MBBS place. The NEET-UG paper leak in May forced a re-examination for 20 lakh candidates, triggered protests at Jantar Mantar led by the Cockroach Janta Party, and led to education minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation. The CBI has charged 13 people, including three NTA subject experts. The JEE Main 2026 saw 15.4 lakh candidates compete for 18,826 IIT seats, while 2.1 lakh appeared for GATE Computer Science alone. In medicine, 20 lakh registered for NEET, with 11.2 lakh qualifying for the 1.37 lakh MBBS seats listed by the NMC. Meanwhile, 2.5 lakh engineering seats in AICTE-approved institutions remain empty, with 67 colleges closing, showing the demand is concentrated in top-tier institutions. ## Coverage - timesofindia.indiatimes.com Tags: IIT seats, JEE Main, medical education, NEET leak, NTA, student protests Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/82-students-fight-for-each-iit-seat-as-exam-leak-reignites-anger/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/82-students-fight-for-each-iit-seat-as-exam-leak-reignites-anger/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.