The toss-up between Gaya and Bodhgaya as the favoured place for setting up the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) continues but state education minister Brishin Patel's mention of Bodhgaya on Wednesday has set tongues wagging.

The Union human resource development ministry is yet to decide on the final location of IIM in the state, while intellectuals, under the banner of IIM Construction Struggling Committee (IIMCSC), took out a victory procession and the BJP observed Vijay Utsav at Ambedkar Park. Officer-bearers of Magadh University Non-Teaching Employees' Association (MUNTEA) met the varsity vice-chancellor Mohammed Ishtiaq to protest the giving away of university land for the IIM. Amid confusion over the Centre's consent to set up the IIM in Bodhgaya, chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Thursday expressed happiness that the B-school would be set up there. An official press note was issued in this regard in which Manjhi expressed hope that the academic activities at IIM would commence from 2015-16 and the state government would provide all possible help for this.

MUNTEA president Amitesh Prakash told The Telegraph on Thursday: 'We welcome IIM to Gaya. But according to the acts and statute of the university, approval from different bodies such as the academic council, the syndicate and the senate is necessary for a serious issue like giving away land to any other institution. Till today, the IIM's land-related matter has not even been included in the agenda for discussion by university bodies. MU has its own identity and by setting up IIM on its campus, the identities would overlap. MUNTEA has also sent a memorandum to minister Patel on Thursday, requesting him to consider the abovementioned facts over the IIM land issue.'

Dean, students' welfare, Magadh University, Sitaram Singh, said there should be a consensus among teachers, officials, non-teaching employees and the students of the university to avoid legal problems in future.

IIMCSC on Thursday took out a victory procession from the collectorate gate, which wound its way by the head post office and GB Road before ending in a meeting near Tower Chowk.

On the protest by Magadh University Employees' Association, IIMCSC convener Vijay Kumar Mithu said: 'If the government acquires land on the MU campus, it would have to pay for it. There is another plot adjacent to the university campus on the Gaya-Dobhi road earmarked for a golf course, which could be chosen as well.'