Devendra Nath Mahto has emerged as the most recognisable face of the current agitation. He is a 35-year-old student leader and activist from Paras Toli Kapidih village in Ranchi district, who completed his schooling in Bundu before studying at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University, Ranchi.
He has been active in Jharkhand’s student politics for years, previously leading the Jharkhand State Students’ Union, JSSU, in protests against JSSC recruitment processes, including a 2024 agitation where he was detained after a police lathi-charge outside the JSSC office.
Mahto is the vice president of the Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha, JLKM, a regional political party led by Jairam Mahto that positions itself around youth and student issues in Jharkhand. Devendra Nath Mahto has contested elections on JLKM’s platform, securing 41,725 votes and finishing third in the Silli Assembly constituency in the 2024 Jharkhand Legislative Assembly election, after earlier contesting the Ranchi Lok Sabha seat as an independent candidate, where he polled 1.32 lakh votes.
He began an indefinite hunger strike at Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium on August 2, 2026, stating he would continue his fast until the government met the protesters’ demands, drawing comparisons in the media to Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike during the Delhi NEET protests. He has at least 11 pending cases against him involving charges such as criminal intimidation, rioting, unlawful assembly and obstructing a public servant, which his party colleagues have described as arising from his history of student protests rather than personal criminal conduct.
Because Mahto is simultaneously a student movement leader and a JLKM office-bearer, his role invites two competing readings. Supporters see his hunger strike as a continuation of genuine, years-long student activism that predates his political affiliation.
Critics, including sections within the JMM-led ruling establishment, may view JLKM’s prominent presence in the protest as an attempt by a comparatively new regional outfit to build its own youth base at the expense of the JMM-led government, particularly since JLKM and JMM compete for overlapping constituencies among Jharkhand’s young voters.
What is the JSSC CGL & JPSC 14th Civil Services Preliminary Examination?
The JPSC 14th Civil Services Preliminary Examination is a preliminary-stage competitive exam conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission to recruit candidates for the state’s civil services, similar in structure to the UPSC Civil Services exam but at the state level. The results of this preliminary exam were declared on July 5, 2026. Aspirants immediately alleged irregularities in the process, and this became the immediate trigger for the sit-in that began at Ranchi’s Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium on July 25.
The JSSC CGL, or Combined Graduate Level exam, is conducted by the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission to fill a range of graduate-level government posts in the state. It has its own troubled recent history. In January 2024, the JSSC CGL general knowledge paper held in the third shift on January 28 was cancelled after candidates alleged that leaked content matching the paper had circulated on messaging platforms before the exam. Nearly 54,300 aspirants had appeared across 108 centres for that recruitment drive, which aimed to fill 2,027 vacancies. Then Bihar and Jharkhand BJP leader Babulal Marandi demanded a CBI investigation at the time, a demand the state did not accept.
The JSSC-CGL exam has since been the subject of continuing judicial proceedings, with the Jharkhand High Court overseeing the process and having previously turned down a plea for a CBI probe into that leak.