While the Enforcement Directorate conducts raids on those who built universities, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav is asking one pointed question: who is protecting the corrupt closer to home? In a sharp post on Wednesday, 19 August 2026, the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh fired a broadside at the ruling BJP, alleging that central agencies are being deployed against education-builders to satisfy a shrinking base of communally-minded supporters — while a long list of what he calls BJP-era scandals goes untouched. Yadav's post, written in Hindi, opens with a stinging frame: 'शिक्षा, शिक्षक व शिक्षार्थी विरोधी' — 'anti-education, anti-teacher, anti-student' — accusing BJP and its allies of shutting down schools while now targeting university-founders through the ED. The charge is as much about optics as it is about law enforcement.

A list that reads like a charge-sheet against BJP rule

What makes the post structurally unusual is its format: not a speech, but a catalogue. Yadav enumerates what he describes as uninvestigated corruption under BJP governance in Uttar Pradesh, naming specific infrastructure projects and alleged scandals. The list includes alleged theft linked to the Ram Mandir construction trust, a 'Codeine scandal' (कोडीन कांडी), and a string of infrastructure failures — the Bundelkhand Expressway described as dilapidated (बदहाल), the Purvanchal Expressway as pothole-ridden (हिचकोले), and the Kanpur-Lucknow Expressway as crater-filled (गड्ढायुक्त). The post also flags a cracking Green Corridor, collapsing bridges, leaking roofs, crumbling water tanks, and a fallen station wall — all attributed to 'BJP-era construction.' He further alleges that BJP-linked police personnel have been caught in other states, that contractors 'swallowed' funds at Mahakumbh, and that officials divided Rs 7,000 crore in advertising expenditure linked to 'misconduct and abusive language.' These are presented as allegations; specific figures and events after mid-2023 remain unverified.

The ED as political battleground in UP

The Enforcement Directorate has been a recurring flashpoint in Uttar Pradesh politics since the 2017 assembly elections. Opposition parties — and not only the Samajwadi Party — have consistently accused the central agency of selective targeting: raiding entities linked to rivals while leaving BJP-affiliated figures untouched. The BJP and the central government have denied political motivation in ED actions, maintaining that investigations follow evidence. The Ram Mandir trust reference is particularly charged. The temple in Ayodhya was inaugurated in January 2024 following a 2019 Supreme Court verdict, with construction overseen by a trust constituted by the central government. Any allegation of financial irregularity there carries enormous symbolic weight — and Yadav deploys it deliberately at the top of his list.

Education policy as the opening salvo

Yadav's framing of the ED raids as targeting 'university-builders' is a direct counter-narrative to BJP's infrastructure-and-development pitch. The Samajwadi Party has long positioned itself as the party of educational expansion in UP, and casting the opposition as builders of institutions versus BJP as closers of schools is a well-worn but effective contrast the party returns to repeatedly ahead of electoral cycles. The accusation that BJP is acting to satisfy '1-2% remaining supporters of narrow communal thinking' (साम्प्रदायिक संकीर्ण सोच के कुतर्की समर्थकों) signals that Yadav is framing this not just as a governance critique but as a comment on BJP's shrinking political base — a pointed electoral reading dressed as a moral one. One catalogue, twelve allegations, zero government responses so far. The next move is Lucknow's.