The Punjab Civil Services (PCS) Mains Examination results snowballed into a political controversy on Friday, with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia accusing the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of being involved in a major recruitment scandal and demanding a high court-monitored inquiry or a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities.The Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) declared the Punjab State Civil Services Combined Competitive Examination-2025 (Mains) results on November 4, with aspirants alleging irregularities and the opposition demanding an independent probe.Majithia brought a group of unsuccessful aspirants to the party office in Chandigarh and extended his party’s support to their demand for transparency in the selection process. The aspirants demanded that the names of all shortlisted candidates and paper evaluators be made public. They also sought preservation of CCTV footage of all examination centres to ensure that evidence was not lost.The candidates alleged that serious anomalies had been noticed during the examination, claiming that question paper booklets at some centres were found open and were not distributed in sealed covers. They also questioned the pattern of selections, alleging that several candidates sitting in the same row at certain centres had cleared the examination.Drawing a comparison with the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), whose Civil Services Mains results were declared on Thursday, the aspirants said the commission had made the names of successful candidates public. They questioned why PPSC was reluctant to share similar information.The aspirants also objected to the relaxation of the compulsory Punjabi language requirement, alleging that the move had been made to accommodate candidates from outside the state.Several candidates narrated their struggles and the financial hardships they had endured while preparing for the examination. One of the aspirants from a rural area said she had broken the glass ceiling by becoming the first woman from her village to appear for the state civil services examination, only to be left questioning the fairness of the selection process.Many students who were taking coaching classes said that strangely, many below-average students had cleared the examination and many among them could not even attempt the whole paper but still managed to clear it, which raises suspicion of possible foul play.Extending his party’s support to the protesting aspirants, Majithia said SAD would take the issue from Parliament to the streets and would not relent until those responsible for the alleged scam were brought to justice. He said the alleged irregularities had jeopardised the careers of meritorious young candidates.Meanwhile, PPSC had on Thursday rejected allegations of irregularities in the PCS Mains Examination 2025 results.Addressing a press conference in Patiala, Chairman Major General Vinayak Saini (retd) presented centre-wise and classroom-wise selection figures, maintaining that the examination had been conducted in a fair and transparent manner. He said an analysis of the data revealed nothing unusual in the shortlisting of 751 candidates out of the 3,959 who appeared at 12 examination centres in Patiala for 331 vacancies.