Bangalore: The Bharatiya Janata Party has constituted a 23-member State election committee, headed by party State president Pralhad Joshi on Monday.

The election committee, which will finalise the names of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls and forward it to the party’s central election committee for approval, comprises all the members of the party’s highest decision-making body of the core committee — the former Chief Ministers B.S. Yeddyurappa, D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Jagadish Shettar and BJP national general secretary Ananth Kumar, among others.

The newly formed committee also comprises the former Ministers Shobha Karandlaje and C.M. Udasi, who came to the party from the Karnataka Janata Paksha along with Mr. Yeddyurappa. This is being interpreted as an effort to provide political accommodation to these two close associates of Mr. Yeddyurappa for returning to the BJP.

Similarly, the election committee also comprises the members of the party’s political affairs committee such as the former Ministers S. Suresh Kumar, Basavaraj Bommai, Umesh V. Katti, Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri and C.T. Ravi.