Union home minister Amit Shah claimed on Monday that after five phases of election in Uttar Pradesh the BJP has already crossed the half-way mark in the assembly of 403 seats. He also accused the Samajwadi Party and BSP of working on “caste lines”, saying the BJP has worked for all communities since 2017.

“The BJP has reached the majority mark in the first five phases of the UP election. In the sixth and seventh phases, people have to vote for the BJP to form the government with over 300 seats,” Shah said in a public address in Kushinagar, where voting will be held on March 3.

The district has seven assembly seats and the BJP’s Padrauna MLA and minister, Swami Prasad Maurya, an influential leader from the other backward classes, had given a jolt to the BJP by joining the SP. He also addressed rallies in Siddharthnagar, Sant Kabir Nagar and Basti.

Voting has concluded for 292 seats and the last two phases of the election will take place for the remaining 111 seats.

With caste considerations held high in these backward Purvanchal districts, Shah said while the SP and the BSP increased the poverty of the state, the BJP is working for welfare of the poor and is working for all castes, be it backward or scheduled castes.

Citing the Ayushman Yojana scheme, which provides for free treatment to the poor up to Rs 5 lakh, Shah called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “representative of the poor”. At the same time, he attacked SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, saying as soon as summer arrives, he flies off to London with his family in a chartered plane and that he can never work for their welfare.

He also said that the Yogi Adityanath government sent criminals such as Mukhtar Ansari and Ateeq Ahmad into jail as these people harassed the poor under previous governments.

Shah said today UP is the country’s top producer of milk, sugarcane, sugar, amla (gooseberry), potatoes, ginger and green peas but this was not so five years earlier, and that under the SP government the state ranked highest in dacoity, cruelty on women, extortion, murder and other crimes.