Senior Congress leader and the leader of opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, alleged on Wednesday that the sociology exam paper of the UGC National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) 2026 had been leaked ahead of the test. He added that it was sold for as much as Rs 2.25 lakh across several states.

The allegations come close on the heels of the nationwide outrage over several other papers leaks, including that of NEET UG 2026 and the Maharashtra Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) 2026, which triggered widespread protests by student groups and members of opposition parties. 

Gandhi slams Union Govt on ‘X’

Taking to his official ‘X’ handle on Wednesday, Gandhi claimed that a 100-page PDF containing the leaked Sociology question paper had been circulated shortly before the June 30, 2026 dated UGC NET exam. He said the document was directly linked to the question paper-setting process and could have only originated from within the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) system. He further said that as many as 90 questions mentioned in the leaked PDF file resembled those which were eventually asked in the actual Sociology test. 

Gandhi also claimed that the question paper was allegedly being sold for Rs 2.25 lakh in states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan. In his post, he alleged that the same syndicate was involved in providing question papers for similar competitive exams, such as CSIR-NET, HTET and ADA recruitment tests. 

He then took a swipe at the Centre, accusing the Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi-led government of failing to curb recurring exam irregularities despite earlier controversies associated with NEET and NET exams. He alleged that the hard work of lakhs of students was going down the drain due to the same.

 The Congress MP furthermore cited a news report by Dainik Bhaskar, which claimed that the sociology paper had been leaked before the June 30 exam. 

Video showing paper match surfaces

As per the report cited by Gandhi, two student leaders in Haryana’s Rohtak released a video displaying the contents of the alleged leaked Sociology paper on a screen. They claimed that two separate sets of questions had been taught to the exam-bound candidates, and alleged that one of the 100-question sets matched the actual paper. 

The NTA, however, is yet to respond to the allegations.