Kanshi Ram had a dream. The influential leaders of Dalits wanted to forge Bahujans as a politically powerful group. He tried to create a social alliance of Dalits with Other Backward Castes and Muslims, but failed—about 26 years ago, the alliance with SP, then led by Mulayam Singh Yadav, disintegrated. Recently, the SP-BSP mahagathbandhan attempted another such coalition, but it fell through even though there were expectations that it would evolve as a long-term partnership in UP politics.