Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Badal seeks ban on exit polls

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal sought a ban on exit polls from the Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday.

His demand came after a number of exit polls predicted that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is set to form the next government in Punjab, which witnessed a multi-cornered electoral contest on February 20.

The counting of votes will be taken up on Thursday.

"Opinion & #ExitPolls are now a scam that amounts to electoral malpractice through bags of govt money to subvert free & fair poll. Exit polls show an unethical collusion between Satta & TV Channels. I urge EC to step in to stop this subversion of democracy with money power," Badal said in a tweet.

He exuded confidence that the SAD, which fought the polls in a tie-up with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), would form the next government in Punjab and said the top priority for the alliance after coming to power would be to revamp the health and education sectors in the state.

"SAD-BSP will revamp education & healthcare as top priority as we look confidently to form govt. We have a vision to take Punjab into the era of world class social & material infrastructure & human resource development. Punjabis deserve clean, sensitive & visionary governance," the former deputy chief minister said in another tweet.

Badal had earlier claimed that the SAD-BSP alliance would win over 80 of the 117 Assembly seats in the state.

He also slammed Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi for not offering "help" to the students from Punjab who were stranded in war-hit Ukraine.

The SAD leader took a dig at Channi for his "goat milking gimmick" and asked him to come out of the "nautanki" (theatrics) mode.

"I urge @CHARANJITCHANNI to come out of nautanki mode & attend to governance at least for the remaining few hours at his disposal. His goat milking gimmick instead attending to people's problems till his last minute at office sums up how Cong reduced governance to a joke in Pb," he wrote on Twitter.

"Shocking! Our students battle grave odds in Ukraine, but @CHARANJITCHANNI has no time away from his gimmicks to help them. Why no officers sent to help students arriving in #Ukraine's neighbouring countries nor travel arrangements made for those arriving on their own?" he asked.

During a visit to the Bhadaur Assembly segment on Tuesday, Channi had milked a goat on the roadside.