Prateek Tanmay
3 min readLucknowUpdated: Jun 12, 2026 02:28 PM IST
Hundreds of students and government job aspirants protested at Lucknow’s Eco Garden on Friday against alleged examination irregularities, before they were joined by Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke.
Among several demands, the demonstrators pressed for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Candidates preparing for teaching, medical, revenue, administrative, and other government recruitment examinations were among the protesters who gathered in the morning.
Several aspirants The Indian Express spoke to said they read about the protest on social media and decided to come and raise their voice.
Apart from the CJP protest, a parallel protest was underway by students protesting against two competitive exams held in Uttar Pradesh in the last two months. Their demands: release of scorecards for the Uttar Pradesh Police Sub-Inspector examination held on March 14-15, whose results were declared on May 7; cancellation of the Lekhpal recruitment test conducted on May 21 over what they claim are irregularities; and greater transparency in recruitment processes.
A protest over these demands was held in Prayagraj on May 29. At the time, they had announced that a large protest march would be held in Lucknow on June 12 if their demands were not addressed.
It was also alleged that three coaching institutes, whose owners participated in the march, had their centres sealed. The Prayagraj Development Authority (PDA), however, claimed the buildings were operating without completing mandatory formalities.
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An aspirant from Prayagraj, who was at Friday’s protest, demanded greater transparency. He said he comes from a farming background and his family can’t afford for him to keep taking endless exams.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Babloo Kumar told PTI that the permission for the programme was granted after an application was submitted by an individual and not by any organisation.
“The application was submitted by a teacher, Vivek Kumar, late Thursday evening. After completing the required procedure, permission was granted,” he said.
According to police, the permission is valid from 10 am to 4 pm, and around 1,000 people are expected to participate.
What CJP said
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Earlier, Dipke had said the protest would be conducted in a peaceful and constitutional manner to raise concerns over alleged examination irregularities.
“We have held peaceful protests in Delhi and Pune. We are not doing anything wrong. We only want to put forward our views in a democracy,” he had said.
The CJP plans to hold further demonstrations in Amritsar and Bengaluru before returning to Delhi’s Jantar Mantar for a larger protest on June 20.
(with PTI inputs)
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