CHENNAI: The BJP appears to be in strange predicament as its allies and even the opposition parties have made the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test (Neet) a poll issue and are clamouring to get the national level screening test scrapped. The BJP, which is defending the exam, is finding the going tough in the April 18 Lok Sabha election.
Strangely, the numerous poll promises may fetch little cheer for the students who would anyway face the test on May 5. Notwithstanding the poll assurances, the next batch may keep the fingers crossed as the election results would be announced on May 23 and thereafter the new government which will be formed may take the call.
“But it is highly improbable for the government scrap the eligibility test. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP will surely get a second term and it is unlikely to change its stand,” a BJP senior said.
Campaigning for the party candidate in Vysarpadi in the city on Sunday evening, DMK chief M.K. Stalin reiterated his promise to scrap Neet if his party was voted to power. “The DMK never allowed Neet to be enforced in Tamil Nadu so long as it was in power. It was the AIADMK that had paved the way for it,” he blamed.
Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan who is seeking re-election from Kanyakumari contended that NEET is very much required for the economically backward, particularly the rural students to realise their ambition to become doctors.
“It is common for all students. Government school students have fared well in Neet,” he said and sought to know if it was possible for the poor students to spend crores of rupees to pursue their dream course. “So Neet is the only option,” he added. BJP allies, AIADMK and PMK are not in favour of Neet.
In Thoothukudi where the BJP state president Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan is contesting her competitor DMK Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi has made NEET a poll issue.
In Chidambaram Lok Sabha constituency from where DMK ally, VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan is contesting, the issue has become emotive. In this reserved constituency spread across Cuddalore and Ariyalur districts, the alleged suicide of Anitha, a medical aspirant from Kuzhumur in Ariyalur, had triggered a State-wide movement against Neet.
