Following a state core committee meeting of BJP leaders on Monday, the party has recommended three leaders who joined the party last year —  R. Shankar, N. Nagaraju (MTB) and AH Vishwanath — for the upcoming Legislative Council polls. 

The party has named the trio in a list sent to the central leadership, reported The Hindu. 

Shankar did not contest the by-elections held in 2019 in Karnataka while MTB Nagaraj and AH Vishwanath both lost in their respective constituencies. 

The trio were named in the list alongside former MLA Sunil Vallyapure who abided by the party's decision to field Avinash Jadhav, son of BJP MP Umesh Jadhav, for the bypolls from his constituency.

The party has included the names of Sunil and the trio who joined the party last year in a shortlist with around a dozen names.

Elections to seven legislative council seats will be held on June 29 and the last day for filing nominations is June 18. 

With 117 MLAs, the ruling BJP can bag 4 of the 7 seats since each candidate needs 28 votes. 

The BJP state unit suffered a jolt last week when the party's central leadership rejected the names recommended for nominations to Rajya Sabha seats in Karnataka. Ignoring the recommendations for Prabhakar Kore, Ramesh Katti and Prakash Shetty, the party's central leadership instead opted for two unknown party workers, Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti, as its picks. 

BJP insiders said that the decisions highlighted the differences between the party's state unit led by BS Yediyurappa and BL Santhosh, the party's national general secretary.

On Monday, BJP's state unit did not formally announce the names of the candidates that will be recommended to the centre for the Legislative Council elections. Instead, Arvind Limbavali, BJP MLA and General Secretary told mediapersons that the final list will be released by the party's central unit.