New Delhi: Should Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resign over his ministry’s handling of the NEET-UG 2026 and CBSE OSM controversies? As many as 58 percent of respondents who identified themselves as voters of the BJP-led NDA said “yes”, according to a new Team Cvoter snap poll survey.
The majority of respondents who were asked questions about controversies surrounding the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) said they believed the nation’s educational governance had gotten worse, and the opposition was generally more critical, even among NDA voters.
The controversy appears to have a direct bearing on the perception of accountability. When respondents were asked if Dharmendra Pradhan should resign over his handling of NEET and CBSE controversies, 66.2 percent replied “yes”.
Support for his resignation was 58.2 percent among NDA voters, as against 72.1 percent among non-NDA voters.
Concerns surrounding the NEET paper leak and CBSE introducing On-Screen Marking (OSM) digital evaluation system for the Class 12 board examination, have made NDA-supporting voters back major reforms and express dissatisfaction with the current examination system, according to the Team Cvoter snap poll conducted on 28 May 2026.
The findings are based on a survey conducted via computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). The survey covered 1,346 respondents aged 18 to 55+ years, from across India.
The respondents were classified by gender, age group, social group, voting preference in 2024, and place of residence as urban and rural to facilitate subgroup analysis.
The survey found that 60.6 percent of respondents said the National Testing Agency (NTA), which is facing intense scrutiny after the NEET controversy, should be dismantled, and the country should return to the previous system of conducting entrance examinations.
What makes the finding politically notable is that support for dismantling the NTA extends beyond non-NDA voters.
Among respondents who admitted to voting for the NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, 58.2 percent replied “yes” when asked if they were in favour of dismantling the NTA.
This figure was 68.1 percent among non-NDA voters.
Findings of the survey also pointed to growing dissatisfaction with the broader education system. Almost 70 percent of respondents said the Class 12 board examination system needs major reforms, while a majority said governance in educational matters has deteriorated over the last five years.
The trend was visible across, irrespective of voting preference.
While non-NDA voters were more critical overall, even among NDA voters, a majority felt educational governance had worsened. These numbers suggest that dissatisfaction is not restricted to ideological critics of the government. The survey also points to the possible electoral consequences of the ongoing examination issues.
When respondents were asked whether students affected by NEET and CBSE-related issues could change their voting preferences in future elections, a substantial majority agreed.
Interestingly, NDA voters were slightly more likely than non-NDA voters to hold this view.
While 73.7 percent of NDA voters said such experiences could influence future voting choices, this number was 71.5 percent among non-NDA voters. The findings suggest that concerns over examination management and educational governance resonate across political divides and could carry implications beyond the education sector.
This survey also captured the lack of trust in the system of public examinations. While a few showed high confidence in the fairness of examinations, a considerable number expressed low trust in the system.
Velamarthi Venkatachalam is an alum of ThePrint School of Journalism and an intern with ThePrint.
(Edited By Harini TS)
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