Jharkhand students protesting against alleged issues with recruitment exams on Sunday burnt effigies of CM Hemant Soren, Rahul Gandhi, and RJD chief Tejashwi Yadav, accusing the ruling alliance of "failing to take concrete action" on their demands.
The protesters have also issued an ultimatum to the state government to accept all their demands by August 18, failing which they will gherao the CM's residence on August 20, calling for his resignation.
In the meantime, the state government has called for a meeting with the student protesters at 2 PM on Monday, as per local media reports. It is not yet known whether the protesters have accepted the talks yet.
The protests, which reached their 23rd day on Sunday, have called for a CBI probe into the alleged issues with the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) and Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) exams.
Their other demands include making the probe report public, action against the guilty, and the revocation of a suspension and all cases filed against whistleblower and finance department officer Santosh Kumar Mastana.
The state government had already agreed to their earlier demands to cancel the 14th JPSC exams, in addition to two older exams, though the students have lashed out at the Combined Graduate Level (CGL) and JSSC exams not being cancelled.
In the case of the CGL exams, a minister had earlier claimed that it could not be cancelled, as the process was conducted under the monitoring of the Supreme Court and the High Court.
Notably, the planned gherao also coincides with a meeting called by the ruling JMM in Ranchi to plan its agitation against the passage of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, in Parliament.
"We also demand that Rahul Gandhi withdraw support from the JMM-led coalition if the CM is not listening to him," said JPSC-JSSC Reforms Manch leader Ravindra Paswan about the Congress leader and Lok Sabha Opposition leader, who has faced flak for not following up on the Jharkhand students' issues with concrete action.
“We are officially announcing for the first time that if these demands are not met, the Chief Minister will have to resign,” said a spokesperson for JPSC-JSSC Reforms Manch, Piyush Singh, as per an Indian Express report.
Around one lakh students from across Jharkhand are expected to join the gherao, explained another leader from the protest group, Piyush Kumar.
Kumar, who was part of the talks between the student protesters and a four-member ministerial panel that originally led to some breakthroughs, also declared that the gherao would be peaceful.
