The BJP's winning team of 282 members in the 16th Lok Sabha elections includes a large number of technocrats and professionals, many of whom will eventually help devise government policies in the Narendra Modi government.

The 282 BJP MPs include 55 who have professional degrees and 21 with doctorates in science, management, social science and political science. Besides, 69 BJP MPs have completed post-graduation. Interestingly, none of the BJP MPs elected in this election is illiterate and only 13 are educated below Class 10.

Modi projected an image of a technocrat administrator throughout his election campaign. He is likely to depend on professionals and technocrats to give shape to his development agenda, the blueprint of which is not yet clear.

One of the fresh additions to the team is Yashwant Sinha's son, Jayant Sinha, a business administration graduate from Harvard University, who won from the Hazari Bagh constituency. Similarly, Abhishek, Singh from Chhattisgarh is a B.Tech and has a degree in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations from the prestigious XLRI. Kirit Somaiya, elected from Mumbai, is a professional chartered accountant and holds a PhD in business policy and administration from the University of Mumbai.

Among the 21 doctorate MPs, Sanwar Lal Jat of Ajmer has a PhD in commerce while General (retd) Vijay Kumar Singh of Ghaziabad has a doctorate in defence studies. Also, Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, infamous for the Muzaffarnagar riots, holds a doctorate in veterinary sciences.

The BJP, it seems, is also unlikely to land in legal trouble in the next five years as nearly 50 of the party's MPs hold degrees in law. Some of these are veterans LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari and Meenakshi Lekhi.

If reports are to be believed, Modi's liking for technocrats reflects from the fact that he has decided to shrink the cabinet considerably and to fill gaps with an array of technocrats, who will be associated with ministers for the government's smooth functioning.