A side-effect of this was to break the hold of the previously dominant Lingayat and Vokkaliga castes over local politics.
Grama Vokkaliga is a sub group of Vokkaliga community of Karnataka residing in Uttara Kannada district.
He is an influential leader of the Vokkaliga community and is popularly known as "Mannina maga" (Son of the soil) for espousing the cause of the farmers.
The surname also occurs among some Ramakshatriya (Kotegar) in Udupi, Kundapur region, Vokkaligas (in Shimoga) and Goud Saraswat Brahmins.
Kengal Hanumanthaiah was born in 1908 in a Vokkaliga family hailing from Lakkappanapalli, a small village near Ramanagara district, Bangalore.
Many of the people in this village speak Kannada which as their mother tongue and a majority of the people belong to community Vokkaliga.
Hindus in Mulki are very diverse in themselves with a significant population of Billavas, Bunts,(Mogaveera) Vokkaligas, Konkanis and Brahmins.
Karnataka's political environment is dominated by two rival caste groups — the Vokkaligas and the Lingayats.
When the Janata Party came to power by emerging as the single largest party in the 1983 State elections, he emerged as a consensus candidate between the powerful Lingayat and Vokkaliga lobbies.
Adichunchanagiri, also called Sri Adichunchanagiri Maha Samsthana Math, is a religious mutt in Nagamangala Taluk, Mandya District, Karnataka State, India is a Vokkaliga community Mutt.