Why Do People Make Such Claims?🤔

When I was a kid, I heard some upper-caste people discussing Ambedkar. They were claiming that he belonged to their caste (upper) and were talking about how he decided to fight for Dalits after witnessing their inhumane treatment. Why is it so hard to accept that Ambedkar was from the Dalit community? But now, people don’t make such claims probably because of education. Still, this remains one of the weird things I remember. I brought this up today because of Rahul Solapurkar's statement. I don’t care whether he says Ambedkar was a Brahmin or not I just don’t understand why some people try to claim him . Have you ever heard such weird claims, or was it just my experience?