Tura, July 19: Meghalaya’s NEET-UG 2026 coverage may need a correction. Following the release of state-wise results by the National Testing Agency (NTA), several reports on the state’s qualifiers-outnumber-seats story identified Bakhambok Anthony Thabah as Meghalaya’s highest-ranked candidate this year, citing an All India Rank (AIR) of 14,455 and a percentile of 99.26791.
Official NTA scorecard data, however, shows that another candidate from the state holds a considerably better rank.
A Garo candidate leads the field Obadiah Naaman B. Sangma, a Garo candidate from Tura, scored 602 marks out of 720 in NEET-UG 2026, securing an All India Rank of 9,409 with an overall percentile of 99.5255251. Within the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category, his rank stands at 64.
Since a lower AIR reflects stronger relative performance, Sangma’s rank of 9,409 places him well ahead of the 14,455 previously reported as the state’s best. Based on a comparison of the two scorecards, this would make Sangma — not Thabah — Meghalaya’s actual top-ranked NEET-UG 2026 candidate.
Subject-Wise Performance Sangma’s scorecard shows strong percentiles across all three subjects:
Physics: 99.6665325 percentile
Chemistry: 98.4266674 percentile
Biology (Botany & Zoology): 97.8668880 percentile
His overall percentile of 99.5255251 places him among the top performers from the Northeast this year.
Why the discrepancy may have occurred
NTA does not release a single, centrally verified “state topper” list; rankings reported in the media are typically compiled from candidate scorecards shared with reporters or from partial data available at the time of publication. It is possible that Sangma’s result was not part of the dataset used for the earlier reports, rather than any deliberate omission.
What Happens Next
Neither NTA nor the state’s counselling authorities have issued a revised topper list as of this report. This article will be updated if any official clarification is issued confirming the state’s actual top-ranked candidate for NEET-UG 2026.
Note: NEET AIR and percentile figures cited here are drawn from official NTA scorecards. Readers are encouraged to verify rankings through the official NTA portal.
