Jagan dares government to CBI probe on DSC; Lokesh says he can’t tell APPSC from DSC

YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) president and former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday (August 20, 2026) sharpened his attack on the TDP-led coalition government, throwing an open challenge to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Education Minister Nara Lokesh to agree to a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged irregularities in the 2025 Mega DSC recruitment.

Addressing a press conference at the YSRCP central office in Tadepalli, Mr. Jagan accused the coalition government of raking up allegations over the APPSC Group-I recruitment conducted during the previous YSRCP government to divert attention from the DSC controversy.

He maintained that no irregularities had taken place in the Group-I recruitment, saying that the notification was issued during the previous TDP government before the 2019 elections and the preliminary examination was also conducted before the YSRCP assumed office. His government, he said, had only conducted the mains examination and interviews for candidates who cleared the preliminary test.

Mr. Jagan said a Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the present government had found no irregularities in the Group-I process or its evaluation. Yet, he alleged, the government continued to target the previous government with “false propaganda”.

Escalating the political challenge, he said the YSRCP was ready for a CBI inquiry into the 2018 Group-I examination and asked whether Mr. Naidu was prepared to subject the 2025 DSC recruitment to the same scrutiny.

Turning to the DSC issue, Mr. Jagan alleged that the recruitment process lacked transparency and cited the case of Naveen, who, he said, had initially secured the first rank but was subsequently denied appointment. Questioning the government’s explanation that the candidate had failed to attend certificate verification, he sought a comprehensive inquiry into the circumstances.

Mr. Jagan also alleged that responsibilities relating to question paper preparation and examination conduct had been concentrated in the hands of a single official, creating scope for a possible breach in the process. The YSRCP, he said, wanted an independent investigation to determine whether any candidate had gained an unfair advantage.

Accusing the ruling coalition of avoiding scrutiny, Mr. Jagan said the government was using allegations against the YSRCP as a political counteroffensive rather than answering questions on the DSC controversy. He said the party had already written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking a CBI inquiry and had also approached the court.

With the Group-I and DSC controversies turning into a fresh political battleground, Mr. Jagan insisted that an independent probe was the only way to establish the truth.

‘Doesn’t know what APPSC means’: Lokesh

Mr. Lokesh hit back in a post on X, saying the former Chief Minister did not know the difference between the APPSC and the DSC. “Doesn’t know what APPSC means. Doesn’t know what DSC means. Thinks they’re both the same. With this level of understanding of Andhra Pradesh’s examination system, now we know why @ysjagan couldn’t conduct a single DSC in his tenure, and is now running away from a debate in the Assembly,” he wrote, sharing a video of the press conference.