Empty minister's room, lots of gossip in coal ministry

New Delhi -- "Shibu Soren is gone, his personal staff is also gone. There is no one here," a coal ministry employee standing outside the office of the minister remarked Wednesday, a day after the man in the post was convicted for murder.

Soren's chequered political career took another twist Tuesday when he was taken into custody immediately after a Delhi court declared him guilty of murdering his secretary Shashinath Jha in 1996.

The morning after, the third floor office in Shastri Bhavan, where the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader till only a day before met hordes of visitors apart from conducting official business, wore a deserted look.

"His personal staff has gone. What will they do here when Shibu Soren is no more a minister," said another coal ministry employee standing in front of the coal minister's vacant office. The doors of the office had been closed since morning.

Vinod Kumar Kispota, personal secretary to the coal minister, came to office in the morning, but Soren's personal assistant Mahadev Yadav stayed away.

But it was business as usual in the corridors of the ministry with bureaucrats hard at work.

"Ministers come and go, it doesn't affect our work schedules," said a senior official in the ministry.

While the senior staff appeared busy in the work, the junior staff could be seen gossiping about Soren's unceremonious exit.

Many of them were busy speculating whether Soren could make a comeback as he has been able to do on an earlier occasion - he had joined Manmohan Singh's government as coal minister earlier in 2004 but had to quit after an arrest warrant was issued against him for his alleged involvement in mass killing in Jharkhand.

"This time it seems difficult for him to make a comeback as he has been convicted," a junior functionary in the ministry said.

Many of his colleagues expressed a similar opinion.

But senior officials in the ministry preferred not to speculate or comment. "Let the law take its own course," was the standard reply.