New Delhi, Oct 4: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the Maharashtra Competitive Examination Coordination Committee has registered its ongoing protest as a ‘Satyagraha’ on the Congress party’s newly launched digital platform.
Gandhi made the statement after launching the ‘Satyagraha’ portal, an initiative aimed at bringing together issue based movements and protests taking place across the country.
He said students from Maharashtra had earlier raised several concerns with him during the ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ programme in Pune. Their grievances included alleged examination paper leaks, delays in recruitment, rising education costs, poor hostel facilities, concerns over food quality and alleged irregularities in direct benefit transfers.
Gandhi said he had previously urged Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to undertake reforms in the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC), improve transparency in examinations and address students’ concerns.
According to Gandhi, the situation has not changed significantly, prompting students to continue their protest in Pune.
“That’s why today, the same students are sitting on satyagraha in Pune,” Gandhi said in a post on X in Hindi.
The Congress leader said the protesters have put forward two key demands. They want the MPSC chairman to step down and be replaced by an honest and qualified official. They have also sought the immediate filling of more than 70,000 vacant government positions in Maharashtra.
Gandhi described the demands as legitimate and called for concrete action rather than assurances from the authorities.
“The Maharashtra Competitive Examination Coordination Committee has registered its movement as ‘Satyagraha’,” he said.
The former Congress president also said the Youth Congress and the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) were supporting the students’ campaign.
He said he had asked members of the two organisations to remain alongside the protesters until their demands are addressed.
Gandhi further stated that he would take up the matter with the Maharashtra Government again and seek a permanent resolution to the issues surrounding the recruitment and examination system.
He accused the authorities of failing to protect the interests of students who depend on competitive examinations for government employment.
“The institution that determines students’ futures has been hijacked. We won’t let it continue like this,” the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said.
The controversy comes amid continuing concerns among aspirants about the functioning of recruitment examinations and the availability of government jobs. Competitive examinations conducted by state-level agencies are a major route into public employment, making transparency and timely recruitment important issues for thousands of candidates.
The launch of the ‘Satyagraha’ portal also gives the Congress a digital mechanism to document and highlight movements centred on specific public grievances.
By placing the Maharashtra students’ campaign on the platform, Gandhi sought to connect their demands with the party’s wider effort to support issue-based protests.
The Congress leader’s intervention is likely to keep pressure on the Maharashtra Government over the functioning of the MPSC and the long-pending vacancies in various departments.
For the protesting aspirants, however, the immediate focus remains on examination reforms, accountability within the recruitment system and faster action on vacant posts.
The students’ movement is now being presented by the Congress as a sustained campaign rather than a short-term protest, with Gandhi promising to continue raising the matter until a lasting solution is found.