Eight Telangana students secure top 138 ranks in NEET UG 2026 as Sahyu bags AIR 13

HYDERABAD — Students from Telangana achieved outstanding results in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Examination (NEET) – UG 2026, with eight candidates securing ranks in the top 138 nationwide. According to the results declared by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Thursday, July 16, 2026, Veeriahgari Sahyu emerged as the state topper, securing an All India Rank (AIR) of 13.

Sahyu scored a 99.99915 percentile to lead the state's performance. He was joined in the top ranks by several other high-achieving students from Telangana, including Bura Sai Sharan (19th rank), Kandagatla Haneesh (21st rank), Andem Sai Charan Reddy (38th rank), Mayuk Jayasimha (42nd rank), Kompella Sai Gayathri Tejoarunima (83rd rank), Rutumbika Mohanty (91st rank), and Devesh Shreegopal Agrawal (123rd rank).

At the national level, Aryan Gupta of Punjab topped the NEET-UG 2026 with a 99.9999 percentile. Panshul Bansal of Haryana and Uplakshya Goyal of Rajasthan secured the second and third ranks, respectively. The NTA, which re-conducted the examination on June 21, noted that the top 17 rankers scoring above 705 marks spanned eight states, including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.

Statistically, 138 candidates across India scored above 690 out of 720 marks. Furthermore, 19 candidates scored above 700, while 1,492 candidates secured 650 and above. A total of 10,160 candidates scored 600 and above, and 90,780 scored 500 and above.

Out of close to 20 lakh candidates who appeared for the exam, 11.21 lakh qualified. Female candidates demonstrated strong performance, making up over 58 percent of all qualified candidates. In terms of pass rates, 56.8 percent of female candidates who appeared qualified, compared to 55.1 percent of male candidates.

The NTA reported that the majority of top-performing candidates were between 17 and 19 years of age. Over 93 percent of the candidates appeared for the exam for the first time, and 99 percent of the students fell in the 17-to-19 age bracket.

According to the NTA, the results were declared within the scheduled timeframe through a re-engineered evaluation process. This included running processing stages in parallel rather than sequentially and de-linking the OMR sheet challenge from the answer key release.

Counselling for the all-India quota in MBBS and BDS courses will be conducted by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), while respective state governments will manage state quota counselling.