Ranchi: As many as 19,039 out of 35,051 candidates, who appeared for NEET-UG 2026, cleared the exam, whose results were declared by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Thursday night. More than 19 lakh candidates appeared for NEET-UG across the country.The state’s performance remained largely similar to last year, when 35,397 candidates appeared and 19,203 qualified. Around 10,000 aspirants from Ranchi appeared for the retest across 21 centres.The examination was initially conducted on May 3, but after discrepancies were reported in the process, the NTA held a retest on June 21.Suharsh Kumar Gupta emerged as the state topper, securing 99.97 percentile and an all-India rank (AIR) of 455.In Ranchi, Gyanendra Garv of JVM Shyamali topped the district with 665 marks out of 720, securing 99.96 percentile and an AIR of 676.Among Ranchi schools, JVM Shyamali reported Garv was followed by Mayank Kumar (AIR 3211), Vaishnavi Raj (AIR 3905) and Sarvjeet (AIR 4271). Delhi Public School, Ranchi, said more than 50 students qualified in the medical entrance test, with Akshat Prem (AIR 2034) emerging as the highest scorer. Sarla Birla Public School reported 10 qualifiers, with Vaishnavi Singh topping the school.Expressing his happiness, Garv said, “The retest was mentally challenging because we had to restart our preparations after thinking the exam was over. I tried to stay calm, followed my study routine and kept revising instead of worrying about the uncertainty. In the end, the efforts paid off.”Commending the performances of students, JVM Shyamali principal B N Jha said, “Gyanendra Garv and all the successful candidates have earned this success through discipline, hard work, self-confidence, and determination. We are confident that our students will contribute significantly to the nation through excellence in the medical profession in future.”DPS Ranchi principal Jaya Chauhan said, “The outstanding results reflect the students’ dedication, perseverance and unwavering determination.”Sarla Birla School principal Manisha Sharma hailed the students to maintaining their composure. “It is the sheer hard work of all the stakeholders, primarily the students, for qualifying in prestigious exams. Our teachers too worked hard,” she said.Coaching institutes also recorded strong performances. Pankaj Singh, director of a Ranchi-based coaching institute, said around 130 students from the institute qualified in the retest.
