Nitish Kumar drove to the house of ally Lalu Prasad late last night, ostensibly to defang a controversy that was seen as a bite on the hand that feeds his bid to return to power.

The chief minister went over to Lalu's 10 Circular Road home around 10pm on Thursday to "clear misconceptions" that may have arisen from a tweet he wrote on Wednesday. The alliance partners held a closed-door meeting for an hour.

Emerging from their meeting, Lalu declared that Nitish and he were united against communal forces. "The BJP is trying to raise all sorts of misgivings about our alliance. First they said we could never come together. Now that we have come together, they are saying we cannot remain together," the RJD chief said.

Nitish said nothing.

The sudden visit of Nitish to Lalu's house has set tongues wagging in political circles given the tenuous nature of the alliance. "Laluji and Nitishji always speak to each other on the phone. Nothing more should be drawn from Thursday night's meeting," said state party chief Basistha Narayan Singh.

However, JDU sources said the chief minister sought to clear the air on "certain contentious issues" that have cropped up of late. "During the last few days, some misunderstanding has been created due to the statements of both Laluji and Nitishji. A one-to-one talk was needed to clear these misunderstandings," said a JDU leader who declined to be named.

On Wednesday, Nitish had let loose a snake among Bihar's poll-bound political lions when he was replying to a question posted on his Twitter handle about how he hoped to develop Bihar with Lalu as an ally.

"Jo rahim uttam prakruti, ka kari sakt kusang. Chandan vish vyapat nahi, lipte rahat bhujang (Evil company can do no harm to a virtuous person/just as poison does not affect the sandalwood even if cobras are entwined in it)," the chief minister had tweeted in response to an interaction session he had with one Sunil V. Chandak. Under a new initiative started by Nitish using the Twitter handle #AskNitish, people are free to ask him questions twice a week - Tuesday and Saturday.

On Tuesday, Chandak had asked Nitish how he would ensure development by being with Lalu.

Nitish's sagely couplet in response to that poser soon ignited a firestorm, which raged around the undeclared identity of the snake and the sandalwood - especially since Nitish's alliance with Lalu Prasad is in a delicate phase.

On Monday, Lalu had reminded Nitish no less than seven times that the RJD boss was the protector of the chief minister's chair.

Nitish's tweet ran into protests from the RJD, following which the chief minister said he was referring to the BJP and not his ally.

"I have used it in the context of the BJP. Through the tweet, I meant to say that though I was with the BJP, I did not allow their communal ideology to overtake me. I have been continuously saying that rule of law will prevail till I am there and there would not be any compromise on good governance," Nitish had said, but his clarification had failed to pacify the RJD brass.

Thursday night's meeting between the two drew sarcastic remarks from opponents. "Nitishji says something during the day and does the opposite in the night," said BJP leader Ananth Kumar, overseeing the poll preparations.