Patna turned into a flashpoint on Tuesday as thousands of students marched through the city demanding the cancellation of the 70th Bihar Public Service Commission examination, and the protest quickly escalated well beyond a routine demonstration. What started as a march from Gandhi Maidan ended with students breaking through police barricades, scuffles with law enforcement, and water cannons being used to disperse the crowd near the Chief Minister’s residence. It’s a story that’s rapidly become one of the biggest developing situations in our Bihar coverage this week.
How the Protest Escalated
The demonstration had been building for days at Gardanibagh, where students have been camped out pressing a list of 15 demands. But Tuesday marked a shift in intensity — the Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Morcha, backed by 14 different student and youth organisations including RYA and SSAI, called for a march aimed at laying siege to Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary’s residence.
The march kicked off from Gandhi Maidan around 11 am and moved toward Raj Bhawan and Lok Bhawan, with heavy police deployment stationed at key chokepoints including Dak Bungalow Chowk, JP Golambar, and Income Tax Golambar. Despite repeated warnings from Patna Police, protesters pushed through barricades at JP Golambar and continued advancing toward Dak Bungalow, prompting police to respond with water cannons and, according to multiple reports, baton charges against several students.
DSP Kamakhya Narayan Singh said officers were prepared to stop the protesters if they attempted to advance further, while expressing hope that dialogue with senior officials could still de-escalate the situation.
What Students Are Actually Demanding
At the heart of the unrest is the 70th BPSC examination, which students allege was compromised by a paper leak and other irregularities serious enough to warrant a complete cancellation and re-conduct of the test. But the grievances extend well beyond just this one exam.
Congress leader Sushil Kumar, speaking at the protest site, laid out additional demands tied to the upcoming Teacher Recruitment Examination (TRE) 4.0, insisting on a single-stage exam format and the complete removal of negative marking. Students have also raised concerns spanning the Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) and Sub-Inspector recruitment processes, arguing that irregularities aren’t isolated to one exam but reflect a broader pattern across the state’s recruitment system — a theme that resonates with ongoing conversations in our education coverage around exam transparency nationwide.
Kumar also pointed to what protesters see as the government’s unwillingness to engage, noting that some students have now been on hunger strike for nine straight days without receiving a formal invitation for talks from the Chief Minister.
The Government’s Response So Far
Not everyone in the ruling alliance sees the situation the same way. JDU leader Shravan Kumar pushed back against the protesters’ framing, stating that recruitment drives are actively underway across departments and that Bihar has led the country in large-scale government hiring. He pointed to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s stated goal of generating one crore jobs in Bihar between 2025 and 2030, urging students to exercise patience rather than, in his words, falling for opposition tactics.
That said, the state government had earlier announced a committee to examine the concerns raised around the BPSC exam’s conduct, though protesters have made clear that a committee review isn’t enough — their core demand remains a full cancellation of the 70th BPSC exam itself.
Why This Keeps Happening in Bihar
This isn’t the first time BPSC-related exam grievances have spilled onto Patna’s streets. Similar protests broke out in December 2024 and January 2025 over the same 70th BPSC exam, with demonstrators then also breaking past barricades near the BPSC office and facing police baton charges, while even an independent MP joined protesters in a rail blockade at one point demanding a re-test. The recurrence of these flashpoints suggests that student trust in Bihar’s recruitment examination system remains deeply shaken, regardless of how many committees or assurances follow each round of unrest.
What Happens Next
With heavy security still deployed across central Patna and student organisations showing no signs of backing down, the standoff appears far from resolved. Whether the Chief Minister agrees to the direct dialogue protesters are demanding, or whether the situation escalates further in the coming days, will likely determine how this particular chapter of Bihar’s recurring exam-integrity crisis plays out. We’ll continue tracking developments on this story through our regular Bihar and news coverage as the situation unfolds.
This report is compiled from live coverage by India TV News, Republic World, IANS, and News24, based on developments in Patna on August 25, 2026.
