Taking reforms to the road: From Ranchi protest to a Statewide yatra

It has been just six days since the students’ protests ended in Ranchi, Jharkhand’s capital, and Devendra Nath Mahto, 34, is out on a yatra. A student leader in the Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM), though he removed this from his Facebook account a couple of days ago, he went on a hunger strike for 16 days, along with five others from different factions, demanding accountability and reforms in the exam system.

On August 24, Mr. Mahto launched the Bharti Vyavastha Sudhar Yatra (Recruitment System Reform Journey) — the second phase of his campaign, from Nemra village in Ramgarh district. This is the birthplace of former Jharkhand Chief Minister, the late Shibu Soren, who was also the co-founder of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), currently in power in a coalition government in the State. The village is surrounded by mountains, and whether Mr. Mahto realises it or not, they are reflective of his lofty dreams of cleaning up the system. 

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His first uphill task is to convince the residents of Nemra that he hadn’t come to burn the effigy of Chief Minister Hemant Soren. About 100 villagers gather, carrying bows and arrows, axes, and sticks. Mr. Mahto and his team do not try to go towards Shibu’s house; instead, they head towards Hazaribagh. Mr. Mahto says, “We are getting full support from students and the people of Jharkhand. Most (government) jobs are being sold, and there is complete anarchy. All students are worried about their future. The ulgulan (revolt, in the tribal Mundari language) has begun, and now it is intensifying.” The 19th century tribal leader Birsa Munda had used the word as he fought for water, forest, and land.

In the rain, Mr. Mahto, wearing a Reform Yatra T-shirt, surrounded by 70 to 80 of his followers, garlands a life-size statue of Shibu on the premises of a government high school. He holds aloft a framed photo of his hero, as patriotic songs play in the background. His supporters hold an umbrella over him. 

“My body is weak, but my soul is stronger than anybody else. You just need willpower and the support of the people, which will keep moving you ahead. I never cared about my health during the hunger strike for the students,” he tells the crowd. 

The yatra, across Jharkhand’s 24 districts, is to garner public support for transparency and fairness in the recruitment examination. Mahto is in the driving seat of the Force Traveller that takes him from village to village. In the windows hang photographs of national leaders associated with India’s independence movement and Jharkhand’s leaders like Shibu, Binod Bihari Mahto, and Nirmal Mahto, who played a role in achieving Jharkhand’s statehood. As he and his supporters travel, they chant slogans glorifying Munda.

Sitting in protest  

Mr. Mahto, who hails from Kapdih village in Ranchi district, has two MA degrees, one in Sanskrit and one in Kurmali, both from Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University, in Ranchi. He graduated with a B.Ed degree from Vinoba Bhave University, in 2017.

He began protesting on July 2, sitting in dharna at Morabadi ground in Ranchi, under the banner of the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC)-Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) Abhyarthi Nyay Manch. However, after the police disallowed him, he shifted to the Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium, joining the other faction, JPSC-JSSC Reform Manch, led by student leader Ravindra Paswan. 

The trigger was the July 2 result of the JPSC’s 14th Combined Civil Services preliminary examination, which shortlisted 2,204 candidates from about 3.5 lakh aspirants for 103 posts. Aspirants pointed to undisclosed category-wise cut-offs, oddities in the merit list, a widely circulated optical mark recognition (OMR) sheet on which a successful candidate had attempted fewer than half the questions, and the fact that the conducting agency had been blacklisted in May 2025. TSR Data Processing Private Limited is a Lucknow-based agency and was earlier blacklisted by JSSC over allegations of irregularities. Despite that, the company continued to conduct exams like JPSC.

Though both Mr. Mahto’s and Paswan’s groups operated separately, their demands were the same. Both wanted the cancellation of the JPSC and JSSC exams, a CBI investigation, and the cancellation of all exams conducted by the blacklisted agency. They demanded prosecution of officials, besides the reconstitution of commissions and a complete examination calendar.

Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren called an emergency meeting of the cabinet on August 17 and agreed to most of the demands made by students, except the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe. The next day, the State government issued a notification cancelling 22 exams over irregularities and handed over 23 additional exams to be investigated by the Crime Investigation Department. The students ended their protest, including the 16-day hunger strike. 

The Supreme Court on August 24, 2026, issued notice to Jharkhand for a CBI probe into alleged malpractices in the Jharkhand Combined Civil Services Preliminary Examination. The CBI is still investigating the first and second JPSC examinations, held in 2003 and 2006.

The Reform Yatra took shape after the Jharkhand High Court stayed the State government notification of cancelling recruitment exams, including the JSSC-CGL exam, which hires for mid-level government jobs. After the order, the students who had been protesting for 26 days, from July 25 to August 19, 2026, alleging irregularities in recruitment exams, felt cheated by the government.

They allege that, to end their protest, the government intentionally cancelled the exams, knowing it would not stand in court. The students also allege that the State government sent the junior advocate to the court instead of the Advocate General, who did not present their side strongly. 

“Why did the government not present its side strongly before the court? The people of Jharkhand and students are hurt by this,” Mr. Mahto says. “It is not the defeat of the students but the defeat of the entire State which is hoping for reform in the recruitment examination.”

Political trials 

After five days of being in hospital during the student protest, Mahto wanted to attend Ranchi’s Tiranga Yatra, organised by the students he was protesting with. He was allegedly stopped from leaving the hospital room. He claimed he was injured in his chest while being jostled by the police.

In his Independence Day speech, Hemant Soren promised “systemic change” along with a time-bound annual examination. 

Now, as Mahto launches the yatra, he tells a local news channel, “Despite being hungry for several days, I stood firm for my rights and the voice of the people, and will continue to do so. If I need to sit on a hunger strike for more days, I will.” Mahto says that the paper leak not only shatters the dreams of students, but also of family members.

He was shifted to Ranchi Sadar Hospital on August 10 after his health deteriorated. On that day, the police resorted to baton charges against the protesting students. Rahul Gandhi condemned the act by writing a post on his social media account X. On August 14, Gandhi wrote a letter to Hemant Soren and urged him to meet students. The CM has neither met any protesting students, nor did he visit Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium.

On August 17, Congress Ministers, a part of Jharkhand’s coalition government, Irfan Ansari and Dipika Pandey Singh, offered Mr. Mahto orange juice, ending his hunger strike.

The son of a retired government teacher, Bishambhar, Mr. Mahto jumped into student politics during his college days. He first tinkered with protests in 2015, sitting in one against a recruitment policy. Later, in 2016, he took to the streets to protest against the reduction in scholarships. 

During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Mahto was arrested in connection with a protest to gherao the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) office. While in jail, he contested as an independent candidate from the Ranchi parliamentary constituency and secured 1.32 lakh votes, finishing third. In 2024 he unsuccessfully contested the Jharkhand Assembly election from Silli assembly seat as a JLKM candidate. 

A trip across Jharkhand 

Mr. Mahto goes from village to village, stopping for students to gather around him. Children come too, but most of the crowd is between 20 and 25. People line the streets to welcome him, showering him with flowers, garlanding him. He sometimes hops out of the van barefooted, walking with his supporters, giving little speeches over the public address system. 

On the fifth day, he is in Jamtara district. Responding to the crowd, Mr. Mahto says, “The enthusiasm and support of the youth make it clear that the fight against job-selling and for transparency and justice in recruitment has now become the voice of every village.”

When the yatra passes through Ramgarh district, Santosh Manjhi, a graduate, joins the group. “I am keen on a government job, but repeated paper leaks and irregularities in the exam system have badly affected my morale. We need to bring reform into the competitive exam system. That’s only possible when someone makes an attempt with honesty,” he says.  

Trigger point

Paswan, 30, has a B.Sc. degree from St. Columba’s College, Hazaribagh, and B.Ed. and M.Sc. degrees from Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribagh. He is a resident of Giridih district and has also taken several competitive exams.

He claims that paper leaks in Jharkhand have increased manifold. He points to the JSSC-CGL exam, which was conducted in September 2024, but was cancelled once when the paper leaked. He says the re-exam also faced allegations of a paper leak, irregularities, and cheating, but the Jharkhand High Court intervened, and the results were declared in December 2025.

“The people in Jharkhand know very well that many students were taken to Nepal to memorise the questions and answers in the JSSC-CGL exam,” Paswan says, adding a laundry list of other irregularities.

On August 21, his JPSC-JSSC Reform Manch asked its followers to burn the effigy of Hemant Soren in every district. This turned violent after JMM supporters allegedly beat the students up in several districts, including Hazaribagh, Giridih, and Ranchi.

After four days, a case was filed against 38 people for allegedly molesting a member of the JPSC-JSSC Reform Manch during the August 21 protest in Ranchi. The case was lodged after the woman, accompanied by Leader of Opposition Babulal Marandi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), lodged a complaint in Ranchi.

Marandi also said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and CM Soren had cancelled exams to suppress the students’ agitation. Earlier, the Jharkhand BJP State President Aditya Sahu had asked Gandhi to withdraw support to Soren’s government if he did not listen to the demands of the students.

Paswan is clear though that his JPSC-JSSC Reform Manch has only student members, unlike Mahto’s JPSC-JSSC Abhyarthi Nyay Manch. “We do not want any political involvement, because the government should not say that we are in touch with any political party and make the issue political. I have no problem with Devendra Mahto ji; he is also raising the voice of the students.”

Waiting for justice 

Nearly 2,500 government employees, who had cleared the JSSC-CGL and other exams, were affected by the government’s decision. On August 18, they staged a protest outside the Cabinet Secretariat for three days, demanding a roll back on the decision. The court put a stay on the government’s order, and they returned to work on August 24.

Leading the protest outside Project Bhavan, the Jharkhand Secretariat in Ranchi, was Chandan Kumar, 33, a resident of Deoghar district and posted as Assistant Section Officer (ASO) in the Secretariat. “One day we were government employees; the next day we became jobless,” says Kumar, who was earlier working with the Delhi Metro in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India.

Another employee working as an ASO in the Jharkhand Secretariat, Ankit Anand, asserted that many had come to join the Jharkhand government after leaving private jobs in other States.

“A wrong narrative was spread about the JSSC-CLG exam. Is it possible that there were irregularities in all vacancies? If there were any, it was the duty of the government and investigating agency to terminate the employment of only those candidates who passed through cheating or unfair means,” says Rahul Kumar Pandit, 30, a resident of Giridih district, and posted as ASO in the Forest Headquarters, Doranda, Ranchi.

Kiran Oraon, 31, who is posted as an ASO in the Department of Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs, says that though the court has given them relief, she wonders how long it will last. They are waiting for the next court hearing on September 15.