Dr. Vaani Rohilla completed her MBBS from Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical College and Research Institute, Bengaluru — a Karnataka state college, which would prove significant. Her father, Dr. Rajiv Kumar Rohilla, coordinated the process. NEET PG AIR 8,569. Speciality: MD Paediatrics.
The rank sits in a zone that is genuinely interesting for Karnataka counselling. It is not high enough to comfortably reach the oldest and most sought-after government medical colleges — KGMU, AIIMS, JJMMC Davangere — in R1. But it is strong enough that with the right strategy across multiple rounds, a good government seat in Karnataka was achievable. That is exactly what the approach was built around.
Because Vaani had completed MBBS from a Karnataka state college, she was eligible for government seats in Karnataka private colleges under KEA counselling — a specific eligibility that most candidates from other states do not have. It opened more doors in Karnataka than her rank alone would have.
KEA Karnataka's PG counselling has a provision that allows candidates who completed MBBS from Karnataka-affiliated colleges to fill government-quota seats in private medical colleges. This put JJMMC Davangere, SDM Dharwad, MS Ramaiah, KIMS Hubli, and BIMS Belagavi all within scope — colleges whose government seats are genuinely excellent, often comparable to the best state government colleges.
Both MCC R1 and KEA R1 were approached with the same discipline: only older, reputed government colleges in the choice list. No compromise options to inflate the list, no newer colleges to create false safety. If the rank could reach BMCRI Bangalore, JJMMC Davangere, or a handful of comparable institutions in R1, excellent. If not, R2 and R3 would deliver.
Neither round delivered an allotment. This was expected — not a setback. The strategy was always to treat R1 as aspirational and build from R2 onwards.
In MCC PG counselling, if a worse college is allotted in R2 than what you held in R1, the R1 seat is automatically cancelled. The rule is unforgiving. By filling only colleges that would genuinely be preferred over anything that might come later, the list stayed safe. No filler entry could accidentally downgrade the outcome.
KEA R2 results came on 23rd December. Dr. Vaani had been allotted SDM Dharwad — Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College of Medical Sciences. MD Paediatrics. Government quota seat.
And then came the message that briefly unsettled the family: a candidate with rank 8,573 — four ranks lower — had been allotted JJMMC Davangere. How?
The choice list had been filled with SDM Dharwad above JJMMC Davangere — not because JJMMC was preferred less, but because the order had been entered incorrectly. SDM was visited first, was impressive, and got placed higher in the list. The system then allotted the highest available preference. Vaani got SDM; a lower-ranked candidate who had JJMMC higher in their list got JJMMC.
The family tried to change the preference order via email to KEA. KEA said it wasn't possible. But the response to this was immediate and clear: "You got Dharwad. It's a good setup. And R3 we're allowed for upgradation — we'll try again for govt."
The error, in other words, didn't cost a bad outcome. It cost a preference — and the preference could still be recovered in Round 3.
Before making any decision about whether to accept SDM and push for MCC R3, or accept it and wait for KEA R3, Vaani had actually visited SDM Dharwad during the choice-filling period. The assessment was direct and firsthand.
Hands-on training. Patient load comparable to corporate setups. More direct resident involvement than Ramaiah's structured but corporate environment. SDM Dharwad's reputation in Paediatrics is specifically strong — it's a medical college with a mission-driven ethos, regional patient trust, and a working culture that Vaani preferred after visiting. She moved it above Ramaiah in her preference list after the visit. The choice-fill error that put it first wasn't entirely wrong in hindsight.
SDM Dharwad is a government-quota seat at a private medical college. Annual fees: approximately ₹8 lakh — a fraction of what a deemed college would cost, and significantly lower than comparable private management quota seats. For a three-year MD programme, the financial difference is meaningful.
KEA Karnataka had never previously allowed candidates who held a seat from R2 to participate in R3 for upgradation. In 2025, for the first time, they did.
This was not a given. It was a policy change. And it was announced on 21st December — before the R2 final results had even been declared — giving candidates who were holding or about to hold R2 seats a clear signal: do not abandon your R2 allotment, because R3 upgradation will be available.
"Candidates who have already been admitted to seats allotted in the second round shall also be eligible to participate in the third round of counselling." First time this had ever been permitted in KEA PG counselling. It meant: join SDM Dharwad, report, pay fees, attend duty — and still be eligible for a better government college in R3 if one opened up. The financial risk of a wrong upgrade was still there, but the right upgrade would simply replace the current seat.
MCC R3 was also attempted in parallel, with a deliberately reduced choice list — only colleges clearly better than SDM, to avoid the risk of a worse allotment cancelling the Karnataka seat. No allotment came from MCC R3. Karnataka was the focus.
KEA R3 mop-up round ran under a court order — to be completed by 5th March 2026, stray vacancy round by 12th March. The final allotment list came out at 2:46am on 26th February.
Dr. Vaani's message at that hour: "Got Belgaum."
BIMS Belagavi — Belgaum Institute of Medical Sciences — is a government medical college in north Karnataka, one of the strong-performing state government colleges in the region with solid clinical infrastructure and MD programmes across specialities. For Vaani, it represented an upgrade in two ways: a pure government college rather than a government-quota seat in a private institution, and a step up from what the choice-fill error had accidentally produced.
And it came because KEA had, for the first time, opened upgradation in R3. Without that policy change — which had never happened in any previous year — SDM Dharwad would have been the final outcome. It was already a good outcome. BIMS Belagavi was better.
Vaani's NEET PG journey had a peculiar shape: a decent-but-not-exceptional rank, a choice-fill mistake that could have been costly, a government seat at one of Karnataka's better private medical colleges as a fallback, a policy change that had never happened before creating an unexpected window, and a government college upgrade at 2:46 in the morning.
None of these elements were guaranteed. What made the outcome possible was the combination of: staying in the process through every round, keeping the choice list disciplined enough that MCC R3 couldn't accidentally downgrade the Karnataka seat, recognising the KEA R3 upgradation rule the moment it was announced, and having SDM Dharwad as a seat worth holding while waiting for something better.
"R3 there'll be heavy movement — so chances will be there." This line was said in December, when SDM Dharwad had just been allotted and the family was weighing options. It was said on the basis of historical patterns — R3 consistently sees significant vacancy movement as candidates move between seats, withdraw, or fail to join. The KEA R3 mop-up proved exactly that. BIMS Belagavi opened. The choice was there. The allotment followed.
Dr. Vaani had come into NEET PG counselling as a Formity UG alumna. She left it with MD Paediatrics at a government medical college in Karnataka — the speciality she wanted, in the state where she trained, at a level of institution her rank made possible once the process ran its full course.
"Got Belgaum."— Dr. Vaani Rohilla, 26 February 2026, 2:46 AM, on the KEA R3 mop-up result
SDM Dharwad held. BIMS Belagavi arrived at 2:46 AM.
The process ran its full course — and it worked.
The best outcomes often come in the last round. The question is whether you're still in the process when they do.
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