The number of JEE applicants this year was 8.58 lakh and not 18 lakh as claimed by BJP MP Dr Subramanian Swamy, clarified Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank'. Pokhriyal was responding to an earlier tweet by Swamy, where he claimed that out of the 18 lakh JEE students who downloaded their admit cards, only 8 lakh appeared for the exams. Swamy added that this was a disgrace to the nation.

"I would like to place some facts on the record regarding JEE (Main) exams. The number of applicants for #JEEMains stands at 8.58 lakh, not 18 lakh as you tweeted," tweeted Pokhriyal. He added, "Out of 8.58 lakh #JEEMains applicants, 6.35 lakh appeared for the exam. Central & respective State Governments assured all possible assistance to the students, for which I compliment all State Governments as well. This entire effort displayed the spirit of cooperative federalism."

However, Swamy responded that the numbers are wrong and that the number of registered candidates was 9,53,473, according to a Ministry of Education response submitted at the Supreme Court.

Swamy on Wednesday took to Twitter to talk about the attendance at the JEE Mains 2020. "I had the accurate count on how many students took the JEE exams this last week — out (of ) 18 lakhs who downloaded passes only 8 lakhs turned up to take up the exam. What a disgrace for the nation which extols vidya and gyan," said Swamy.

Swamy had earlier claimed that only 51 per cent of the students had appeared for the exam and that that's the figure police have come up with. "So far no official estimates have come. But according to the information from the police, it has not exceeded in any place more than 51 per cent," Swamy told TNIE Editorial Director Prabhu Chawla during a session of e-expressions on Tuesday.