The entrance examination for admission to BTech programmes in engineering colleges is expected to be held after the upcoming Assembly elections, according to a senior official of the state Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) board.

The newly appointed board chairperson, Gautam Paul, stated that a meeting will be held next week to review preparations for this year’s examination. The board usually releases its examination notification in December, but no announcement has been issued so far.

Officials indicated that the examination schedule will likely be finalized in consultation with the state administration. The test is conducted for admission to nearly 34,000 engineering seats across institutions.

The JEE is typically organised in April. However, the Election Commission has not yet declared the Assembly election dates, which are expected to take place in April and May.

Representatives of private engineering colleges have urged the board to announce the examination schedule at the earliest. They pointed out that, in most years, the application process is already underway by this time. The recent absence of a chairperson for over a month may have contributed to the delay.

The previous chairperson’s tenure ended in late December, and the board’s registrar managed operations during the interim period.

Education department officials noted that students must be given about a month to complete online applications once the notification is published. Additionally, examination centres are often used for security deployment during elections, making it difficult to conduct the test before polling concludes.

In 2021, during the last Assembly elections, the state JEE was conducted in July. Last year, BTech classes began in October, later than usual, due to delays in result publication linked to legal matters.