A day after staging the massive rally at Gandhi Maidan, it was time for Nitish Kumar and JD(U) ministers to take a breather.

The chief minister had no official engagement himself and the janata durbar held every Monday was cancelled.

“After months of slogging, facing hostile sections of the society and remaining tense about the outcome, the chief minister is very happy over the success of the rally and he deserves a holiday before he goes into Pakistan mode,” said a close aide of the chief minister, who would be proceeding to Pakistan with a delegation from the state on November 9.

He justified the cancellation of the durbar. “It’s not just the crowd turnout that Nitish is happy about. It was the fact that he had called for a rally not on the basis of caste or political issues. He had called it in favour of an issue related to Bihar,” the aide said.

The janata durbar held by the chief minister on the first Monday of a month is on the home department and police and attracts the maximum number of complainants to 1 Aney Marg. “We are happy that the CM has decided to give his ministers and officials a holiday from the durbar,” said an IAS officer, stressing that the weekly meet was a strenuous affair as ministers and officials have to go through an endless number of complaints.

While Nitish took the day off on Monday, his fatigue-hit ministers struggled to meet their office obligations. Most ministers skipped either their first half or second half of their office to have a siesta. “I usually reach office at 10am. But on Monday I reached office at 3.30pm because in the morning I had talks with persons who had participated in the rally and stayed on,” said rural engineering organisation department minister Bhim Singh. He was among the few ministers willing to be quoted about being drained out.

Vijay Kumar Choudhary, the water resources minister and state co-ordinator of the Adhikar Rally, said he did not feel tired. “One feels fatigue only when one’s mission fails. Our efforts have been very successful and I feel fresh,” he said. “We have completed our work for our party and now we are back to government work,” added food and consumer affairs minister Shyam Rajak.