A 17-year-old girl from nearby Tirupur, Tamil Nadu allegedly committed suicide on June 5 apparently dejected over her inability to clear the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).

The tragedy is likely to set off a political blame game. Police said she failed to clear NEET and out of depression hanged herself in her house. The results were announced this morning. She was hopeful of clearing the test and joining the medical course as she scored 490 marks in the 12th Standard, according to police.

In the runup to the Lok Sabha election, the ruling AIADMK in its manifesto promised to get exemption for the state students from NEET till such time they were able to cope up with the improved new syllabus. On the other hand, the DMK in its manifesto said the national entrance test would be scrapped if its alliance came to power.

In 2017, a 17-year-old Dalit girl of Ariyalur district, S Anitha, who scored 1176 marks out of 1200 in her Class XII exam committed suicide as she could not get a good NEET score. Her death triggered state-wide outrage with all political parties and students coming together against the entrance exam. After its legal efforts and legislative measures to avoid NEET failed, the state government party had set up coaching centres to train students for the test. The ruling government has said there was no need to scrap NEET for medical admissions.