Don-turned-politician and former MLA, Pawan Pandey joined the Bahujan Samaj Party on Thursday — two days after the induction of historysheeter Chandra Bhadra Singh alias Sonu Singh in the party.

Tribhuvan Dutt, BSP co-ordinator for Varanasi, confirmed the report.

“It was the wish of my supporters to see me in the BSP and work for the party,” said Pandey. He admitted that his name had once figured in over 50 cases, “but now only five were pending”. “I was falsely implicated in all the cases,” he added.

In the Lok Sabha elections, Pandey had campaigned for Congress candidate Sanjay Singh in Sultanpur. “I had supported Singh due to my personal relations with him,” he explained.

Earlier, Pandey was active in the Samajwadi Party, but was suspended for anti-party activities on the eve of the elections.

His brother Rakesh Pandey had won the Ambedkar Nagar parliamentary seat as a BSP candidate by defeating BJP’s Vinay Katiyar. His brother Krishna Kumar Pandey is also in the BSP.

In 2007, Pandey was defeated by Sonu Singh in Isauli in the Assembly elections. Singh, who was elected as the SP candidate, resigned from the Assembly before joining the BSP.

According to Pandey, he was not in the race for the BSP ticket in Isauli. Party sources said he is likely to be appointed in charge of the BSP in Sultanpur.

He had contested the Lok Sabha election from Sultanpur in 1999 and bagged over one lakh votes. In 1991, he was elected MLA from Akbarpur seat in Ambedkar Nagar district.