Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh has once again produced the country’s largest pool of qualified NEET candidates, and this year’s result carries a familiar story – the biggest numbers, paired with a state topper who cracked the national top 10. Aryan Dubey, scoring a 99.99965 percentile, has secured All India Rank 7, the best performance from UP in the Re-NEET UG 2026 exam declared by the National Testing Agency.
Why UP’s Numbers Matter More Than Its Rank
Unlike states such as Punjab or Haryana, which grabbed headlines for topping the merit list outright, Uttar Pradesh’s real strength this year is scale:
- 1,70,770 candidates qualified from UP – the highest of any state in the country
- Out of the more than 11.5 lakh candidates who appeared from UP, 6,54,049 were women
- A single state producing this volume of qualifiers puts extra pressure on seat availability and seat-matrix planning during counselling
Meet the State Topper: Aryan Dubey
| Particulars | Details |
| Name | Aryan Dubey |
| All India Rank | 7 |
| Percentile | 99.99965 |
| Category | General |
Dubey’s AIR 7 places him just outside the national top 5, behind toppers from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Bihar and Maharashtra, but ahead of every other candidate from Uttar Pradesh’s massive applicant pool.
The Rest of UP’s Top Rankers
Beyond the state topper, NTA’s merit data shows eight more UP candidates inside the national top 150:
| Name | Gender | Category | Percentile | AIR |
| Aryan Dubey | Male | General | 99.99965 | 7 |
| Gunjan | Female | OBC-NCL (Central List) | 99.9959998 | 52 |
| Vansham Raj Singh | Male | General | 99.9959998 | 68 |
| Krish Chauhan | Male | General | 99.9959998 | 72 |
| Ekagra Yadav | Male | General | 99.9930996 | 104 |
| Srinarayan Hari Mishra | Male | General | 99.9930996 | 105 |
| Arima Jha | Female | General | 99.9930996 | 107 |
| Krishna Yadav | Male | OBC-NCL (Central List) | 99.9930996 | 131 |
| Arsh Chauhan | Male | General | 99.9930996 | 132 |
Notably, this list is almost entirely General and OBC-NCL candidates – no SC, ST or EWS candidate from UP featured in the national top 150 this year.
Where This Puts UP Nationally
- Punjab’s Aryan Gupta and Haryana’s Panshul Bansal jointly topped the country with 715/720
- Maharashtra (AIR 5) is the only large state ahead of UP among the top rankers
- UP still finishes ahead of Tamil Nadu (AIR 12), Telangana (AIR 13) and Karnataka (AIR 20)
- Nationally, 19 candidates crossed 700 marks and 138 scored 690+
Category-Wise Cutoffs for Re-NEET 2026
- UR/EWS: 50th percentile (≈213–715 marks)
- OBC/SC/ST: 40th percentile (≈177–212 marks)
- Disability quota candidates get a slightly relaxed threshold across all categories
How UP Counselling Works
Unlike some states that route everything through one exam-conducting body, UP’s counselling sits with a dedicated education directorate rather than a medical university:
- Conducted by the Directorate of Medical Education and Training (DGME), Uttar Pradesh, via dgme.up.gov.in
- Online counselling covers 85% of seats under the state quota
- The remaining 15% goes to the All India Quota, run separately by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC)
- Registration, choice-filling and document submission all happen online before final seat confirmation
What UP Candidates Should Track Next
- The counselling schedule and seat matrix on dgme.up.gov.in
- Verification of their scorecard, Class 12 marksheet and category certificate before registration opens
- Given the sheer volume of qualifiers this year, closing ranks in popular government colleges are likely to shift compared to previous years – worth watching once the seat matrix is out
