A day after the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) results were declared by the conducting body, Naveen Patnaik dialled the All-India Rank One holder Soyeb Aftab, who is a resident of Rourkela’s Azad Mohalla.
As per sources, the Odisha CM extended congratulatory wishes to Soyeb and commended him for the astounding success. Aftab has scored cent percent marks in this year’s NEET, marking a historic high and setting a precedent that will be difficult to match. Patnaik also wished him a bright career ahead. Naturally, Aftab was elated to receive the call from the Chief Minister’s Office. “I feel so happy that the chief minister called and congratulated me for the best performance in NEET. He wished me luck for a better future,” he added.
Aftab shares the rank with his Delhi counterpart Aakanksha Singh, who has also scored a perfect 720 but missed out on the top spot due to her being younger. While the fact has raised eyebrows, the result has been framed such due to long-standing and well-agreed upon terms of tie-breaking that is used to settle ranks when scores are equal. Normally, a candidate who scores higher in Biology is given the preferential rank. However, in the unlikely event of both having a perfect score – as was the case this year – the rank had to be settled on grounds of age.
Aftab is the first from Odisha in recent history to score an AIR-1 in a national examination. After completing his tenth standard, he had moved to Kota to prepare exclusively for the NEET examinations. During the lockdown phase, Soyeb stayed back in Kota and put in the hard work to get the results.