Dalit electoral success required half a century and strategic caste alliances

Evidence

Ambedkar himself lost twice in the polls in post-1947 India. It took more than half a century for Kanshi Ram, the founder of a predominantly Dalit party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, and his protégé Mayawati to succeed in a first-past-the-post parliamentary democracy. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 569