Earlier, in July 2020, at a press event in Mysuru, Shivakumar said: “Time has come for the Vokkaligas (the dominant south Karnataka community to which he belongs) to elect a community leader after a gap of 18 years.”

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/d-k-shivakumar-congress-karnataka-results-siddaramaiah-8607441/

On oft-repeated criticism by some parties that AIMIM fielding candidates lead to “division” of the Muslim vote, he wondered why such a question is not being posed to leaders of other communities such as Lingayats, Vokkaligas and Kurubas.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/bangalore/owaisi-aimim-25-candidates-karnataka-polls-eyes-alliance-jds-8537820/

The Congress has allotted its second largest chunk of seats to the state’s other dominant community, Vokkaligas, with as many as 29 of its 166 tickets given to them so far.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/lions-share-of-karnataka-poll-tickets-to-lingayats-congress-bjp-8545686/

The Karnataka government announced two new categories for reservation in jobs and education and scrapped the four per cent quota for Muslims, which was divided between the Vokkaligas and Lingayats.

Source: https://www.mangalorean.com/decision-making-highly-shaky-flawed-sc-on-karnataka-scrapping-4-muslim-quota/