Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav launched a sharp attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday, 26 June 2026, invoking Ramayana imagery to allege corruption in Ayodhya temple donation funds and demanding accountability for the NEET paper leak scandal, calling the ruling party's tenure a period of institutional decay.

Context

In his post, Yadav declared that 'भाजपा का लंकाकांड, अयोध्या में ही होगा' — 'the BJP's Lanka-episode will unfold in Ayodhya itself' — a metaphor drawing on the Ramayana's destruction of the demon king Ravana's golden kingdom. He accused the party of wearing the mask of devotion while allegedly siphoning offerings and donations, saying the mask had now slipped. He coined the term 'लंकाधिपति' ('lord of Lanka') for BJP leadership, predicting its downfall.

Yadav also mocked the government's earlier claim that resignations do not happen under its rule, sarcastically noting that BJP functionaries were now distinguishing between 'इस्तीफ़ा' and 'त्यागपत्र' — two Hindi words both meaning resignation — to save face. He alleged that internal factions within the party, its affiliated organisations and trusts would now expose one another in a fight over ill-gotten gains.

Policy Backdrop

The Ram Mandir in Ayodhya was inaugurated on 22 January 2024 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with a trust established to manage the temple's donations, offerings and construction funds. The temple has since received donations running into hundreds of crores of rupees from devotees across the country, making the management of these funds a subject of public scrutiny.

Separately, the NEET undergraduate medical entrance examination was embroiled in a paper leak controversy in 2024, triggering nationwide student protests, a CBI probe and hearings before the Supreme Court over demands for a fresh examination. Yadav referenced student anger directly, quoting NEET aspirants as demanding that the 'लीकाधिपति' — 'lord of the leak' — also be made to resign now that resignations have begun.

Stakeholders and Impact

The post targets multiple constituencies simultaneously: temple devotees who donated in faith, NEET aspirants whose futures were disrupted by the alleged paper leak, and voters in Uttar Pradesh where the Samajwadi Party is the principal opposition to the BJP. By linking religious trust management with an examination scandal, Yadav attempts to build a composite narrative of governance failure.

Yadav further alleged that unregistered individuals and entities connected to the BJP ecosystem — referring to what he called a network of party units, affiliates, trusts and volunteer wings — would be compelled to account for their actions, warning that 'borders would be closed' before those responsible could flee with stolen funds. He invoked the phrase 'भगवान के ऑडिट' ('God's audit') to suggest that divine as well as institutional reckoning awaited those involved.

What's Next

Opposition pressure for an independent audit of Ayodhya temple trust accounts is likely to intensify following Yadav's post, which explicitly calls for accountability of both registered and unregistered fund-management bodies. On the NEET front, any fresh judicial or parliamentary action on the paper leak case could amplify the political narrative Yadav is constructing.

With assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh on the horizon, the Samajwadi Party's strategy of merging religious-institution governance failures with central examination scandals signals a broader effort to frame the BJP's 'Amrit Kaal' as a period of moral and administrative collapse — a line of attack the party is likely to sustain in the months ahead.