Patna, Feb. 21: From hot property, it's taken about a fortnight for Jitan Ram Manjhi to become a hot potato.

A day after Manjhi stepped down as chief minister after blinking in the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation he had with Nitish Kumar, his strategists are busy charting ways in which to ensure their leader bounces back.

"Only a naive would try to write an epitaph for Manjhi as far as his role in Bihar politics is concerned. It is, rather, a kind of perfect situation to launch 'Brand Manjhi' in Bihar politics," said a Manjhi camp insider today.

The script to launch "Brand Manjhi" has already been prepared. On February 28, Manjhi and his loyalists - Narendra Singh, Brishen Patel and Bhim Singh among others - would address a workers' meet in Patna, where they would explain to the participants how the situation was made difficult for Manjhi who was sticking to JDU policies.

"People would be told that Manjhi didn't deviate from the party's principles. Rather, he refused to be the stooge of Nitish Kumar who was trying to run the state through Manjhi," revealed the insider.

The February 28 jamboree, which has been convened in the name of JDU workers' meet, is also set to witness the announcement of a new front under the banner of which Manjhi and his loyalists would tour the state in the coming days to establish the former chief minister not only as a messiah of Dalits but that of all the deprived sections of the society.

"Ours would be a rainbow kind of combination with representation of leaders from all sections of the society. We have named this group M-8 which would stand with Manjhi during his public contact programme," said another Manjhi camp follower.

M-8 stands for those eight ministers of the Manjhi government who stood with him while the chief minister was crossing swords with some of the most powerful leaders of Bihar politics - Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar.

Brishen Patel, Samrat Choudhary, Mahachandra Prasad Singh, Narendra Singh, Vinay Bihari, Nitish Mishra, Bhim Singh and Shahid Ali Khan are the eight former ministers who constitute the M-8 group. While Patel and Choudhary represent the Other Backward Classes (OBC), Mahachandra, Narendra, Vinay and Nitish belong to the forward caste group. Bhim Singh happens to be from Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) and Shahid is the minority face of the group.

"With Manjhi being the group leader and Dalit face and eight of his loyalists representing all major classes, we are bound to have connect with the people," said another insider from Manjhi camp.

According to estimates, EBCs constitute about 28 per cent of Bihar voters, OBCs one-fourth, Muslims 17 per cent and Dalits about 16 per cent, while upper castes are between 12 and 14 per cent.