Sushma Swaraj urges voters to get rid of 'dark years of Congress misrule'

Asking people to get rid of the "dark years of Congress misrule", senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday asked voters in Uttarakhand not to miss the opportunity to elect a strong and efficient government at the Centre. 

Addressing an election meeting in Rishikesh in support of party candidate from Haridwar seat Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank, she claimed there is a strong wave in the country in favour of BJP. Be it controlling corruption, price rise, crime against women or frustration among farmers, people of this country have seen Congress-led UPA failing on all fronts, she said.

Even Uttarakhand, where the party is in power, has failed to recover from the effects of last year's calamity with roads still in a bad shape despite just a few days left for the Char Dham pilgrimage, the BJP leader said.

Crediting Vajpayee government for AIIMS-Rishikesh, Swaraj said the blueprint was prepared under NDA but UPA-I only slept over it. "Work finally started on it only after a BJP delegation met Union health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad during UPA-II, " she said.

"However, unfortunately the name given to the project by NDA ie., Veerchandra Garhwali AIIMS was changed by the UPA," she added, and promised if NDA is voted to power at the Centre the health facility will be renamed as Veerchandra Garhwali All India Institute of Medical Sciences.