Examinees faced a tough time reaching examination centres on Sunday owing to the rush for Hunkar Rally.

Apart from BJP supporters thronging the state capital to take part in the mega gathering, thousands of aspirants came down to appear for various competitive examinations such as Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Railway Recruitment Board (Group D), and Bank Probationary Officers’ conducted by Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).

To compound the aspirants’ woes, very few buses or autorickshaws plied.

Many examinees were left with no other option but to hitchhike their way to their respective centres.

Arun Kumar, who came down from Ara to appear in SSC’s lower divisional clerical test, said: “Sunday being the day of the rally, I reached Patna on Saturday evening and put up at a hotel near Patna Junction. However, it took me more than an hour to reach Patna College. I had to walk around 5.5km to the exam centre.” The reporting time for the two-hour exam was 9.30am. The test started from 10am. He added: “I didn’t have the exact information about routes. I reached the centre asking for routes from people, which took up time.”

Chanda Kumari, an aspirant for the same exam from Chhapra, said she had a harrowing time just getting to the test venue.

However, she was lucky as her examination was scheduled from 2pm to 4pm.

She said: “Apart from the inconvenience in reaching the centre, I had to shell out a lot of money. I took the Sampark Kranti Express from Chhapra to Hajipur. Finding no buses or autos from there, I had to pay Rs 200 as auto fare till Patna Junction in comparison to Rs 30 on other days. From Patna Junction, I walked two hours to reach Patna Science College.”

More than 25,000 candidates had appeared for the SSC examination, conducted at 34 centres in the state capital.

The IBPS conducted the Bank Probationary Officers’ test at more than 30 centres in Patna. More than 15,000 students were slated to appear.

Vinay Shankar, an IBPS examinee and a resident of Jakkanpur, said: “I had made up my mind to appear for the test at any cost. As the exam was scheduled to start at 10am, I left home at 7am to reach the centre at Shastri Nagar.”

The aspirants claimed that while political parties talk about unemployment and youth power, they should keep note that their rallies do not clash with exam dates.