Patna: A tweet a day to unnerve the Opposition - chief minister Nitish Kumar has adopted this policy of shoot and scoot at RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who then returns the fire in full ballast.

It started on Tuesday, when the chief minister tweeted taunting Lalu, without taking his name, on the RJD chief's brouhaha over the Centre's withdrawal of National Security Guard (NSG) commando cover.

The next day, Nitish followed it up with another tweet jab about the RJD chief's worry about life, assets and the under-construction shopping mall that stands stalled by the Centre.

Lalu retaliated with a series of tweets raking up allegations of plagiarism and murder.

And on Thursday, Nitish tweeted again in Hindi: "Corruption is discipline and action against it is bad behaviour."

Lalu retaliated with verses asking the name of the person who "indulged in plagiarism, put the murder case against him in cold storage, allowed 40 scams under his nose, boasted about his morality and fake image."

Sources said Nitish has written down seven tweets and handed them over to his Twitter handler with instructions that one should be released daily.

A source close to the chief minister said that he wrote down the material for the tweets during his recent Rajgir visit "with foresight, compiled them and gave them for daily release".

So why is Nitish, who has often said that he doesn't pays attention to Lalu and has even asked JDU spokespersons not to retaliate when the RJD leader makes provoking statements, on the aggressive and has chosen Twitter as the battleground?

JDU spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said: "Nitish ji had asked us not to retaliate on personal attacks on him by Lalu and his family members and we are abiding by it. But when he (Nitish) saw that they were maligning the image of Bihar and its democratic institutions by talking nonsense, he himself took the field."

Neeraj added that Nitish has chosen Twitter because it is a public platform with extensive reach and is followed by conventional media as well.

"The JDU is now setting the agenda and forcing Lalu and his family members to reply in front of everybody," Neeraj said.

Another Nitish aide said that the last two Nitish tweets came early morning "to keep the Lalu clan busy through the day. They have no work and need to be kept engaged."