Burdwan student scores 99.9 to emerge Bengal’s JEE Mains topper, 30th on nat’l list
Times of India | 21 April 2026
Kolkata: Kuntal Choudhury from East Burdwan has emerged as Bengal's top scorer in JEE Mains, securing an National Testing Agency (NTA) score of 99.9. According to the list of top candidates released by NTA, he has ranked 30th among the 53 names announced.
A resident of Bolgona, Kuntal had ranked fifth in HS from Bhatar M P High School in 2025. Despite having already cleared both JEE Mains and JEE Advanced last year, he chose to take a drop year to improve his performance and aim for admission to a premier institute.
Kuntal said he wants to pursue a BTech in computer science engineering at one of the top five IITs, and therefore, dedicated an additional year to preparation.
During the past year, Kuntal studied for 9-10 hours every day. He said, "I feel that if a student is focused and works hard for at least two years, then it won't be difficult to crack JEE Mains."
Kuntal comes from a family of educators. His father is a primary school teacher while his mother teaches history at a secondary school.
In the last few years, students from HS backgrounds have achieved remarkable scores in competitive exams.