Bengaluru, Nov. 28 -- The Congress leadership is facing intensifying pressure from two major community organisations in Karnataka as the debate over whether Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar should succeed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah enters a more public phase. Leaders from the Vokkaliga community, to which Shivakumar belongs, warned that any attempt to overlook him for the top post would trigger strong opposition, while a prominent backward class federation cautioned that efforts to remove Siddaramaiah would have consequences for the party.

The Karnataka Rajya Vokkaligara Sangha said it would challenge any move by the Congress high command that sidelines Shivakumar. At a press conference, its president L Srinivas argued that Shivakuma...