Mystery of two UPSC candidates with same name, rank and roll number

Results of the UPSC civil services exam were declared on May 23

Two women from Madhya Pradesh with the same first name are both claiming to have cracked the UPSC civil services examination. When the UPSC results were declared on Tuesday, the 184th rank went to one Ayasha Fatima – but celebrations erupted in two different households.

Ayasha Fatima, a 23-year-old from Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh, claims to have cleared the UPSC civil services examination in her first attempt. On the other hand, Ayasha Makrani, 26, from Alirajpur district, says she is the one who secured 184th rank in the exam, according to an NDTV report.

What complicates the issue further is the fact that both the Ayashas have produced admit cards with the same roll number – 7811744.

However, there are some discrepancies in their admit cards too. In the admit card of Ayasha Makrani, the date of the personality test is mentioned as April 25, 2023, and the day as Thursday. Fatima's card also has the same date (April 25) but the day mentioned is Tuesday. April 25, 2023, fell on a Tuesday.

Besides that, Ayasha Fatima’s admit card has the UPSC watermark with a QR code, while Makrani’s admit card is printed on a white paper without the watermark or QR code.

Ayasha Makrani’s brother told Times of India that she received an email from UPSC informing her that her name in the admit card had been changed due to similarity with the names of three other candidates. “The full name was not changed. Her name was changed to Ayasha Fatima,” Makrani’s brother said.

However, sources in UPSC told NDTV that Ayasha Fatima of Dewas is the correct candidate. They will now investigate how such a mix-up occurred.