Animal and fish resources department principal secretary Shashi Shekhar Sharma sits alone at the janata durbar on Monday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, June 17: The dismissal of 11 BJP ministers by chief minister Nitish Kumar has left their secretaries lonely.

Their loneliness was palpable at Nitish’s janata durbar at 1 Aney Marg today. Secretaries of five departments — road construction, co-operative, urban development, animal and fish resources and public health and engineering — whose ministers were ousted yesterday by the chief minister following the break up of the BJP-JD(U) alliance, sat alone without their bosses.

Before the break-up, the secretaries used to be guided by their respective ministers while dealing with complaints. Today, they had to do their best without any guidance.

“We have to carry on with the work,” said Shashi Shekhar Sharma, principal secretary, animal and fish resources. Till yesterday, senior BJP leader Giriraj Singh led his department. “I am dealing with every issue very carefully,” said Sharma.

Asked what problems he was facing in the absence of a superior, he smiled and said: “There’s no problem. I’m doing my duty.”

Before the bitter estrangement, there was a lot of camaraderie between JD(U) and BJP ministers as well as secretaries of different departments, who would often share candid moments with each other. There was only wistfulness about happier times.

Public health and engineering, principal secretary, Rabindra Panwar, said: “We are missing the ministers. I’m sure they are missing us as well. But it is important to do our duty.”

Petitioners at the durbar were disappointed at being unable to submit their complaints to ministers. Samastipur resident Sanjeev Kumar, who wanted to meet the public health and engineering minister, said: “It would have been nice if I could have met the minister.”

The turmoil in the political sphere in the state had its effect on the numbers at the janata durbar.

Usually, there are 600 to 700 visitors, but today there were only 172. Perhaps for the first time, Nitish finished meeting all the visitors in just an hour and three minutes.