A student group has asked Karnataka’s chief electoral officer to have Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bangalore roadshow on Sunday rescheduled in view of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) that will be held the same day.

After Opposition parties protested that the roadshow would make it difficult for aspirants to reach exam centres, the BJP tweaked Modi’s schedule, lining up a longer event on Saturday and a shorter one on Sunday.

In its letter to the chiefelectoral officer on Friday, a copy of which has been emailed to the chief election commissioner, CPIML-Liberation-backed AISA’s Karnataka unit said: “It is highly irresponsible to schedule such a political rally on the same day as an important exam like NEET, which determines the future of many aspiring medical professionals.

“Students will be made to go through added stressand anxiety caused bytraffic disruptions and delays due to the roadshow campaign.

“The exam is scheduled on Sunday, May 7, between 2pm and 5.20pm in the afternoon. However, the planned roadshow will be passing through major roads and areas of Bangalore causing massive traffic jams and ending up creating a nightmare for students and their parents reaching examination centres.

“Thousands of students in Bangalore have registered for the NEET exam. There will also be students and their parents travelling from outside Bangalore to give exams as they would have their centres in the city.

“Students generally leave their homes 3 hours prior to their exam in order to avoid delays due to traffic. The stoppage of buses and traffic within Bangalore till 11.30am will leave students anxiously rushing to their exam centres, and will eventually lead to many students missing their examinations.”

A source in the Election Commission explainedthat although the poll panel is not empowered to stop a rally, the local administrationcan use the state’s lawssuch as the Police Act or Covid regulations to prevent a gathering.

The chief electoral officer has not intervened andis unlikely to do so after Karnataka High Court on Friday declined to stop political roadshows in Bangalore this weekend.

The Prime Minister’s rally was earlier scheduled to cover a distance of around 26km from 10am to 1.30pm on Sunday. In a news conference in Bangalore on Friday, Union minister of state Shobha Karandlaje announced that the route had been cut to 8km and the roadshow would end by 11.30am.

BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya tweeted: “In view of the NEET exam on 7th May, BJP Karnataka has decided tohold the longer roadshow (26km) on 6th May and take the shorter route on 7th, so that the program ends by 11.30am, well before the exam. Besides, police has been instructedto allow seamless movement of students with halltickets.”