New Delhi: The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) on Thursday intensified its attack on the Centre over the reported exposure of JEE (Advanced) 2026 candidate data, alleging serious lapses in cybersecurity and demanding the immediate removal of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Addressing a press conference here, CJP leaders said the incident had raised fresh concerns over the security of student data and the government's handling of examination systems.

CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka alleged that personal details, including names, phone numbers and images of nearly two lakh candidates, were exposed due to a cloud storage configuration issue linked to the examination results portal.

Claiming that the episode reflected poor cybersecurity safeguards, Ranka said the government had failed to ensure the security of critical educational infrastructure. He urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sack Pradhan, alleging a lack of accountability in the education sector.

The controversy follows IIT Roorkee's acknowledgement of a cloud storage configuration issue related to the JEE (Advanced) 2026 results portal after a teenage cybersecurity researcher reported that candidate records and admit-card documents were accessible without authentication.

While IIT Roorkee maintained that the exposed information was available only in a "read-only" format and that no records could be altered, Ranka questioned the adequacy of the explanation, arguing that unauthorised access to personal data itself was a matter of concern.

He also demanded that the government disclose details of data exposure incidents and cybersecurity breaches involving public institutions.

The CJP reiterated that its proposed agitation on June 6 would remain peaceful and lawful. The group has been seeking Pradhan's resignation and plans to continue its campaign over issues relating to examination management and student data security.