Tadepalli, August 20: Former Chief Minister and YSRCP President Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy demanded a comprehensive CBI investigation into both the DSC–2025 recruitment process and the 2018 APPSC Group-I notification, asserting that the YSRCP is ready for any inquiry because it has done nothing wrong. Addressing the media, YS Jagan said he would place documentary evidence before the people on both issues and challenged Chandrababu Naidu to write to the Centre seeking a CBI probe if he is equally confident.
YS Jagan said the government is gradually being forced to admit that the leakages and irregularities exposed by YSRCP in the DSC issue are true, but is still refusing to order a CBI inquiry. He said the government is denying YSRCP recognition as the principal Opposition because it knows the party will raise these issues forcefully in the Assembly. He compared the Assembly situation to a cricket match without an opposing team, bowling or fielding, where the father and son are batting alone and declaring that they have played a magnificent innings.
Government avoided DSC Debate
YS Jagan said YSRCP MLCs stalled proceedings in the Legislative Council for four days demanding a discussion on DSC leakages and irregularities, but the government refused to come forward for a proper debate. He said the reason was clear: the DSC irregularities are serious, the demand for a CBI probe is becoming unavoidable, and Education Minister Nara Lokesh must take responsibility and resign.
He said Lokesh himself admitted that both question-paper preparation and conduct of the DSC examination were placed under the same officer, and even tried to justify it by asking what was wrong with that. YS Jagan said this was one of the central issues raised by YSRCP from the beginning. The preparation of DSC questions is the responsibility of the SCERT Director, while the conduct of the DSC examination is the responsibility of the DSC Convenor. By putting both sensitive functions under one person, the government destroyed institutional checks, compromised transparency and opened the door to leakage, he said.
Naveen’s First Rank and Changed Merit List
YS Jagan said the government has also admitted that Naveen, an outsourced employee working in the division connected with DSC question-paper preparation, secured first rank. He questioned why Naveen was not given the job if he had secured Rank 1, why his name appeared in the first merit list, why that list was later changed, why his name was removed and why a second merit list was issued.
He said both Chandrababu and Lokesh offered the same explanation — that Naveen was not selected because he did not attend certificate verification. The same stand was taken before the court, and officials were earlier made to give the same explanation. But YS Jagan asked how Naveen could attend certificate verification if his candidate ID was blocked and no call letter was issued. Naveen himself placed this fact before the High Court through documentary material, he said, asking why neither the father nor the son answered this question in the Assembly.
YS Jagan said when it is plainly evident that an outsourced employee with access to the question-bank system secured first rank in the same examination, the real issue becomes obvious. Because a leak had taken place, because it had to be covered up, and because giving him the job would have triggered a major controversy, the merit list was altered and he was removed from consideration, he said. When so many irregularities are visible, a CBI investigation is essential, he asserted.
Sports Quota without DSC Exam
YS Jagan said the government has now admitted that, for the first time in history, teaching posts were given under the Sports Quota without candidates writing the DSC examination, and that special Government Orders were issued to enable this. He said the government’s justification is unbelievable, as it is comparing these teacher appointments with special appointments given to exceptional sportspersons such as P.V. Sindhu.
He said P.V. Sindhu won a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and achieved extraordinary success in the BWF World Championships, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and other international events. There are special policies for exceptional sportspersons of that stature, and governments take Cabinet decisions to provide them appointments and incentives. But such appointments cannot be compared with ordinary recruitment of hundreds of teachers under a Sports Quota, he said.
YS Jagan asked how many among the nearly 372 persons appointed under the Sports Quota had Olympic, World Championship, Asian Games or Commonwealth Games-level medals comparable to Sindhu. He said Chandrababu and Lokesh are using the name of an international player like Sindhu only to shield their scam.
GOs opened the Gate, then Shut it
YS Jagan said Chandrababu and Lokesh claimed that the new GOs were introduced in teacher recruitment to benefit sportspersons, but neither of them could explain why those same GOs were later withdrawn. If sportspersons were the reason, he asked, are those who come later not sportspersons?
He said G.O. No. 4 and G.O. No. 47 were brought in to open the gates and facilitate teacher appointments for their own people. Once the recruitment was completed, G.O. No. 25 and G.O. No. 56 were issued and the gates were shut again.
He also pointed to the case of Anigi Durgaiah, an ST candidate and national-level archery gold medallist, who was denied a teaching post even after being called for certificate verification. At the same time, Sports Quota appointments were made on the basis of participation certificates, including certificates linked to the Softball Association headed by TDP MLA Koona Ravi Kumar and the Judo Association associated with Visakhapatnam MP Bharat, who is related to Lokesh.
In the past, even candidates claiming Sports Quota reservation had to appear for and qualify in the DSC examination before becoming eligible for appointment, he said. But under this process, 372 Sports Quota teaching posts were filled without candidates writing the DSC examination.
Money-for-Jobs complaints weakened
YS Jagan said the government has admitted on the floor of the Assembly that audio and video-call recordings surfaced showing negotiations and demands for money in connection with Sports Quota teacher posts. When the phone number of the person negotiating in the video was clearly visible, why did the FIR avoid naming him and refer to him only as a “suspect,” he asked. He also questioned why the person was allowed to walk out on station bail and why police needed to consult senior officials before registering the FIR.
He said the case was effectively weakened instead of being taken to its logical conclusion, and neither Chandrababu nor Lokesh answered these questions. A similar case surfaced in Ongole, where a DSC aspirant paid ₹14 lakh after being promised a teaching post under the Sports Quota. She was shown another person as a reference and told that the same arrangement was being made for that candidate too. That person secured the post, but she did not, he said.
When she demanded answers, she was misled with the promise of another job in AP Tourism. She approached the police saying she had been cheated, but instead of recording in the FIR that the money was taken in connection with a DSC post, police portrayed it as a transaction relating to an AP Tourism job. The FIR was registered in November last year, but no meaningful action has followed. Even after she approached the SP complaining that no action was being taken, her grievance was not addressed, YS Jagan said.
He said this creates the impression that whenever a complaint connected with DSC surfaces, the instruction is to contain it locally and prevent serious investigation. From the question-paper leak to Sports Quota recruitment and money-for-jobs negotiations, every issue requires a comprehensive probe, he said.
Lokesh must resign
YS Jagan said this is why YSRCP is demanding a CBI investigation into the entire DSC–2025 process. Lokesh must accept responsibility and resign as Education Minister, he said. Referring to national accountability standards, he said Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned taking responsibility for the NEET question-paper leak, and questioned whether there is one standard for them and another for Chandrababu and Lokesh, who are partners in the same NDA.
APPSC issue raised to Protect Lokesh
Turning to the 2018 APPSC Group-I recruitment, YS Jagan said Chandrababu has started a new game to protect his son by making false charges over APPSC. He said Chandrababu is now targeting the careers and futures of 163 officers who were selected to senior government posts.
He said the APPSC examinations cannot be compared to the present DSC controversy. There was no question-paper leak, no outsourced employee from the question-paper section securing ranks, no special GOs to benefit particular candidates, no appointment without writing the examination, and no audio or video recordings showing jobs being sold or money being negotiated. What is being seen now, he said, is Chandrababu’s frustration and desperation to protect his son.
YS Jagan said Chandrababu constituted a SIT in April 2025, within the first year of returning to power, to examine the APPSC issue. At the same time, the government’s own advocates filed an affidavit before the High Court stating that there was no wrongdoing in the declaration of the final results. Even while that process was underway, another SIT was constituted on 14 February 2026. These SITs consist of officers working under Chandrababu’s government, he said, adding that using investigation teams to throw mud at political opponents is nothing new for Chandrababu.
Group-I Notification was issued during Chandrababu’s time
YS Jagan said Chandrababu had hurriedly issued the Group-I notification just 76 days before the 2019 election notification. Even before the YSRCP government came to power, the preliminary examination had already been conducted on 26 May 2019. The YSRCP government subsequently declared the preliminary results and conducted the Group-I Mains from 14 to 20 December 2020. In these circumstances, he asked, where is the question of vested interest on YSRCP’s part?
He said that when the preliminary examination itself was conducted during Chandrababu’s government before YSRCP came to power, it is absurd to give political colour to candidates who qualified through that process.
Digital Evaluation was set aside by Court
YS Jagan said that due to the severe COVID situation and to avoid further delay in announcing results, the APPSC Commission decided to adopt digital evaluation. Even five Commission members appointed during Chandrababu’s previous government consented to that decision. Digital evaluation, he explained, means written answer scripts are scanned and sent electronically to evaluators, who assess them online and award marks through the system.
He said this decision was taken during the extraordinary circumstances created by COVID, when even close relatives were afraid to attend funerals of those who died from the virus. However, some candidates approached the High Court. Following the High Court’s directions, the marks obtained through digital evaluation were not taken into consideration and that process was not carried forward.
YS Jagan said the High Court itself clearly observed that digital evaluation as such could not be faulted. It directed manual evaluation only because the original recruitment notification had not specifically mentioned digital evaluation. Accordingly, digital evaluation was set aside, answer scripts were evaluated manually, interviews were conducted on the basis of those marks, the recruitment process was completed and 163 candidates were appointed. Every stage thereafter was conducted in accordance with High Court directions, he said.
Those selected officers have now served in government for nearly four years, he said. After allowing them to serve all these years, Chandrababu is now again targeting them and casting aspersions on their selection.
Haailand Narrative is False
YS Jagan said the first major charge being made in APPSC is that something improper happened during digital evaluation and that the result was manipulated through that process. But when the High Court itself directed that digital evaluation should not be considered, and final results were declared only on manual evaluation conducted as per court orders, the repeated invocation of digital evaluation is misleading, he said.
He said another false narrative is being pushed around Haailand. Official documents make it clear that no evaluation was conducted there. In fact, the Chandrababu government itself stated the same in an affidavit filed before the High Court on 15 November 2025. If the government’s own affidavit says no evaluation took place at Haailand, why is the same false narrative still being propagated, he asked.
SIT itself found No Tampering
YS Jagan said evaluation was conducted under CCTV surveillance and questioned whether such safeguards existed during Chandrababu’s tenure. Officers such as Gautam Sawang, who served in APPSC, are highly competent and experienced officials, he said, adding that unprecedented precautions were taken to preserve the integrity of the process.
He said the SIT report itself stated that there was no tampering of answer scripts, that the scripts remained intact, and that the forensic audit found no manipulation. The SIT also recorded that there were no unauthorised alterations or additions in the OMR valuation slips or answer scripts, and that none of these issues had any impact on candidates’ marks or ranks.
YS Jagan said the government is trying to create a false impression that corrections in OMR sheets were made by unidentified outsiders. But the SIT report itself says corrections were made by examiners and there was no scope for outsiders to alter the records.
Corrections are part of Evaluation
YS Jagan said every candidate’s paper is evaluated at least twice. If the difference between the two evaluations exceeds 15 percent, the paper is evaluated a third time. All these details are recorded in OMR sheets and controlled bundle slips, and there is a separate column for corrections. Corrections are part of the evaluation process itself, and the same principle applies even in UPSC examinations, he said.
He explained that APPSC answer-script evaluation passes through multiple levels of scrutiny: Camp Officer, Assistant Camp Officer, Examiner, Scrutiniser and Chief Examiner. If any mistake is noticed at any stage, it is corrected so that the candidate does not suffer injustice. Every such correction is entered in the Control Bundle Slip with the signatures of officials concerned. Therefore, routine evaluation corrections cannot be portrayed as manipulation, he said.
Challenge on interview Marks
YS Jagan said one of the points being raised is that the Chief Examiner should not make corrections to answer scripts, but even on that issue there are clear Supreme Court guidelines. Another distortion, he said, is that candidates who secured lower marks in written examinations were awarded higher marks in interviews.
He challenged Chandrababu to publish the complete APPSC results from his previous tenure and disclose how many marks candidates secured in written examinations and how many they received in interviews. Once those figures are public, the truth will become obvious, he said.
YSRCP brought Reforms in APPSC
YS Jagan said it was during the YSRCP government that revolutionary reforms were introduced in APPSC recruitment. For the first time, APPSC examination centres and the evaluation process were brought under continuous CCTV surveillance. Candidates were allowed into examination halls only after facial recognition, biometric verification and thumb-impression authentication. CCTV cameras were installed in every examination hall for the first time, he said.
He said APPSC examinations had never before been conducted with such transparency and safeguards, and similar systems were later adopted even in UPSC examinations. Before YSRCP came to power, APPSC selections had only one interview board with just one Civil Services officer. After YSRCP came to power, three interview boards were created, each with three members. Across the interview process, 24 IAS and IPS officers and six Vice-Chancellors from different universities in the State participated.
The system was designed so that candidates would not know in advance which board or members would interview them. Jumbling was followed to ensure impartiality. YS Jagan said Chandrababu has now discarded that system and gone back to a single interview board with only one Civil Services officer.
During the YSRCP government, APPSC issued 78 notifications and filled 6,296 posts without any major controversy surrounding those recruitments. Of the notifications issued during the YSRCP government, Chandrababu has kept seven pending and cancelled two, which shows the extent of his concern for the unemployed, YS Jagan said.
Open challenge to Chandrababu
YS Jagan threw an open challenge to Chandrababu Naidu to order a CBI investigation not only into DSC–2025, as YSRCP has been demanding, but also into the 2018 Group-I notification. “We are ready because we have done nothing wrong. If Chandrababu is equally confident, he should immediately write to the Centre seeking a CBI investigation into both matters,” he said.
