Amritsar, March 9 : Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday said the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Bahujan Samaj Party alliance will form the next government in Punjab and asserted the Congress will face a crushing defeat by not even crossing 20-seats in total. Badal was speaking to the media after paying obeisance at Sri Harmandar Sahib along with his wife and former on Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Asserting that the SAD was the voice of the ‘Panth’and Punjab, he said “we hope to get another chance to serve the people of the state so that we can take the state to a new era of peace and prosperity”. Asked about the exit polls which have predicted that the Aam Aadmi Party will do well in Punjab, he said “last time the same polls gave AAP 100 seats. They got twenty. This time also the exit polls have got their figures wrong. “Our feedback is that the SAD-BSP alliance will secure a majority in the state. We will secure 16 to 17 seats in the Majha region alone,” he said. Demanding that both exit as well as opinion polls should be banned, Badal said “it seems that governments have started misusing these polls to influence voters. The polls have become paid polls. The Election Commission should look into this and ban such polls immediately”. Questioned about the Punjab government’s failure to coordinate the evacuation of its students who were trapped in Ukraine, he said “the Punjab government should have sent its team to Ukraine to not only coordinate the evacuation of students but also offer them immediate humanitarian aid”. Badal said it was unfortunate that instead of doing that Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi was busy indulging in dramas. “It seems Channi does not realize that the polls are over and that he cannot influence voters any longer with such acts. He may be the CM for a few days more but he must do his duty towards the state and its citizens.” Badal said education would be the top most priority of the next SAD-BSP government. “We will create modern schools which will provide integrated education to students in each block”. He also spoke about bringing in “transparency in government functioning” to end the “era of scams under Congress rule”, including the earlier SC Scholarship scam and the recent job scam. He also asserted that a false case has been registered against Bikram Singh Majithia and that the SAD would fight this vendetta case in courts. GS ING