Centre will work for Assam whatever be poll result: Nitin Gadkari

Guwahati: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said the Centre will continue to work for the development of Assam irrespective of the result of the Assembly polls.

The Minister however said the issue of illegal immigrants coming into the state could be better addressed if same-party government is formed both at the Centre and the state.

"Even if BJP is defeated and Congress comes to power, we will continue to develop infrastructure in Assam. There will be no politics with development. Recently I announced package for development of roads in Bihar," the Union Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister told a press conference here.

He was responding to a query if the Centre will continue to support Assam in its thrust to develop the infrastructure even if his party fails to form the government.

"I assure the people that we will work more in the next five years than (what has been done) in the past 50-60 years. In the past 60 years, Congress got the chance to develop Assam. During Independence, Assam was ranked 5th and now it is ranked 4th poorest state in the country," Gadkari claimed.

He informed the Centre has sanctioned investment of Rs 1,00,000 crore for developing infrastructure in North East, of which works for Rs 40,000 crore have already been awarded.

"The focus of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is development of North East and Assam. Accordingly our thrust is to develop road, rail and water network here," he added.

Talking about the high turnout in the first phase of polling in Assam, Gadkari thanked the people and claimed it is a verdict for a "change".

"We will get full majority under the leadership of Sarbananda Sonowal. The biggest help in this direction we have got is from the Congress because of their misrule and corruption," he added.