Even as chief minister Nitish Kumar was busy browsing through files at the main secretariat, his predecessor Jitan Ram Manjhi was working on the future strategy with his mentor Jagannath Mishra.

The address of the meeting was 12 Bailey Road, the residence of Mishra's son and former minister Nitish Mishra, who represents the Jhanjharpur Assembly constituency.

During the meeting, the three-time chief minister, considered to have inspired Manjhi, gave few important tips and also suggested how to counter Nitish and RJD's Lalu Prasad.

Following the hour-and-a-half tête-à-tête, the veteran politician said: "I just advised Manjhi to go ahead with the kind of decision he has taken in the cabinet meetings. I also told him the kind of work he had done for the deprived sections of the society such as the Dalits, Nitish and Lalu have never done. So it would be wise to concentrate on those cabinet decisions and execute the strategy accordingly."

Uncertain about his future, Manjhi has continuously taken policy decisions and offered sops to virtually every section of the society.

Manjhi had announced that priority would be accorded to contractors belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) in all government jobs up to Rs 75 lakh and possible quota in government jobs to upper castes.

The breakthrough to enter politics for Manjhi came in 1979, when he caught Congress chief minister Mishra's eye, quit his job and joined the Congress. Mishra became his mentor, fielded him in an election in 1980 and soon made him a minister.

Mishra today suggested Manjhi to make Dalits an issue in the winter elec-tion and go to seek people's mandate.

"I told him that he had sent a strong message to the backward classes and had established his own mark in the society. Nitish and Lalu also used the Mandals for their votebank but never did anything for them. It was Manjhi who not only talked but also executed what he said," said Mishra.

The veteran also suggested Manjhi to use the next three to four months to reach out to people to strengthen himself and his loyalists after which decision could be taken on its future course of strategy.

It was Manjhi who called up Mishra and sought an appointment to meet him. However, Mishra preferred meeting him at his son's residence instead of meeting of his own at Shastri Nagar in west Patna.

As a disciple, Manjhi has already proved how much respect he has for his mentor. During his tenure, chief minister Manjhi had decided to re-christen the Darbhanga Engineering College as Dr Jagannath Mishra Institute of Technology, Darbhanga.

After becoming chief minister last year, Manjhi had first visited Mishra's residence and sought his blessings.

Manjhi's camp has already said it would hold a workers' meet at SK Memorial Hall on February 28 in which a new front would be launched under the banner of Manjhi.

His loyalists would tour the state in the coming days to establish that the former chief minister was not onlyas a messiah of Dalits but of all the deprived sections of the society.

On the very next day, March 1, Nitish's JDU has called a political conference at Gandhi Maidan to be attended by the booth-level workers.

"As an elder brother, I have also suggested him to lay stress on integrated and inclusive growth, "said Mishra.

Before he met Manjhi, RJD MP from Madhepura had visited Mishra's residence in the morning. Manjhi on Monday did not speak to the media and refused to comment on his meeting with Mishra.