Bahujan Samaj Party leader and former MLA Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali joined the Samajwadi Party in the presence of party chief Akhilesh Yadav here on Wednesday.

Shah Alam, a two-time MLA (2012, 2017) from Mubarakpur constituency of Azamgarh, is considered to have a good following in the district. He had contested the 2014 and 2022 Lok Sabha by-elections from Azamgarh against SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and Dharmendra Yadav, respectively, on BSP ticket.  He however lost both the elections.

In the 2022 bypoll, Shah Alam had secured 2,66,210 votes from apparently on the backing of Muslim voters. Bharatiya Janata Party’s Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua won that poll by getting 3.12 lakh votes, while SP’s Dharmendra Yadav secured 3.04 lakh votes.

In the 2014 poll also, Shah Alam secured more than 2.66 lakh votes from Azamgarh and was at third place, while SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav won the seat securing 3.40 lakh votes.

SP has not yet declared any candidate from Azamgarh parliamentary constituency and has made Dharmendra Yadav in-charge of this and Kannauj seats.

Welcoming Shah Alam into the SP fold, Akhilesh Yadav said, “Today, I congratulate Shah Alam Guddu and his supporters. This year’s elections will include a ‘samvidhan manthan’ similar to the ‘Samudra Manthan’. We are pleased that our Pichhda, Dalit and Alpsankhyak (PDA) family is growing, and we will work together to defeat the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.”

He added: “Ahead of the 2022 UP assembly elections, Shah Alam had met me but we could not reach a decision.”

He said with the entry of Shah Alam in the Samajwadi Party, the PDA would be strengthened across the state and give new energy to the social coalition.