With most exit polls predicting a clear majority for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday said exit polls should be banned.

“I think no Punjabi believes in the exit polls. Opinion polls and exit polls should be banned. The Election Commission monitors that voters aren’t influenced, but nowadays some governments get opinion polls conducted using public money. AAP has done this,” Badal told reporters in Amritsar ahead of the counting of votes for Punjab Assembly poll results on Thursday.

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Supporting Badal, SAD’s alliance partner Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) said poll survey companies should be brought under the purview of the law and accountability should be fixed.

BSP’s state president Jasvir Singh Garhi said Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) and Bahujan Samaj Party will form a government in the state with a clear majority after defeating all the exit polls.

Garhi, who is contesting from Phagwara constituency, said that the Election Commission should bring the results of the survey companies under the purview of the law.

“The judiciary should set guidelines to record the resources used by election survey companies during the survey and also to make public the names and addresses of the people included in the survey,” he said.

“Such companies were committing treason by misleading the people and promoting gambling by converting billions of rupees of the country into black money, which must be stopped,” Garhi added.

AAP’s senior leader and Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema, however, termed the SAD’s demand for a ban on poll surveys as a sign of frustration.

Cheema said as the media had predicted the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab through opinion polls and exit polls, due to which Sukhbir Singh Badal could not control his disquiet even for a few hours and he started questioning the media.

He alleged Badal during his 10 years in power in Punjab had misused government funds by engaging in various polls’ surveys and tried to tear down the democracy. “Stories of Sukhbir’s atrocities have been making headlines.

That is why now Sukhbir Singh Badal is speaking against the media and the poll surveys conducted by the media,” the AAP leader said.

“Poll surveys reflect the views of the people and democracy allows us to express. Although the picture of the election results will be clear after the counting of votes tomorrow, the leaders of the traditional parties, like Sukhbir Singh Badal, cannot control their apprehensiveness,” he added.

Cheema said that the people of Punjab have voted for change; pro-people and pro-development Aam Aadmi Party.