New Delhi, Sept . 13: Less than a year after it voted the Mahagathbandhan to power, Bihar's breath hangs bated on a spectacular toss between its chief ruling allies. The dare flung between the RJD and JDU must come to drop one side or another. Either convictedgangster Mohammad Shahabuddin's days out of jail are limited or chief minister Nitish Kumar's days in the company of Lalu Prasad.

The crisis over Shahabuddin has escalated with speed since he walked out of Bhagalpur jail last Saturday; Nitish's visible inability to restrain the Siwan don's post-bail braggadocio has become Bihar's talking point.

Convicted for multiple murders, Shahabuddin is out after a 11-year spell behind bars; about his first move upon release was to belittle Nitish as a " paristhitiyon ke mukhya mantri", a chief minister of circumstances.

The two have a recorded history of acrimony. One of Nitish's first resolves after becoming chief minister in 2005 was to fast-track cases against Shahabuddin (and other political dons), intern him and eventually have him convicted for multiple murders.

All this time, though, Shahabuddin has retained the support of Lalu. A few months ago, while he was still in Bhagalpur jail, Lalu anointed Shahabuddin vice-president of the RJD.

Nitish has suddenly become cast in the public imagination as a chief minister helpless to the devices of his ally Lalu and the seamier side of his support base, so beholden to the RJD that he is willing to make compromises that belie the man who vowed zero-tolerance to criminals, especially of the political variety. These past days, Nitish has being likened to Manmohan Singh on a bad day - taken hostage by "coalition compulsions" and helplessly presiding over a slide in the state of Bihar's affairs.

Political aides of Nitish have conceded to The Telegraph that the government "gravely miscalculated" on Shahabuddin to land itself a high-tension political liability. It was flaccid in pursuing police investigations against the former MP from Siwan, failed to plug legal holes and allowed him a judicial leeway out. The government is now contemplating ways to "reverse damage" even if that requires risky over-correction.

"It has become clear to us and to everyone that not proceeding with speed and alacrity to prevent getting bail was a mistake and the damage is done. It is no longer a matter of controlling damage, it is a matter of reversing it. Nitish's greatest asset is his image as no-nonsense governance man, Shahabuddin is hurting him," said a political aide of the chief minister.

How the Nitish establishment plans to go about effecting that is yet unclear. One recourse being mulled is to endorse the appeal against Shahabuddin's bail that lawyer Prashant Bhushan intends to file in the Supreme Court. The other, and more intractable, resort would be to push the RJD leadership to disown Shahabuddin's broadsides against Nitish and publicly ratify renewed efforts to put him back behind bars.

The chief minister and his advisers know only too well that getting the RJD boss to forsake Shahabuddin isn't easily achieved. Two top JDU ministers - Bijendra Yadav and Lalan Singh - were trotted out yesterday in a pointed effort to send Lalu a message: restrain Shahabuddin and others speaking against Nitish, or else... "Don't miss the significance of Nitish employing two of his senior-most hands," the aide said. "Holding a press conference at this level has meaning."

This afternoon, the top Congressman in the Nitish government, education minister Ashok Choudhary, launched a broadside in defence of the chief minister and dared the RJD to "walk out" of the alliance if it wasn't happy with Nitish.

Choudhary spoke a little out of turn and at the risk of sounding foolhardy. Should the RJD - the single-largest party in the Mahagathbandhan with 80 MLAs - walk out, the Nitish government won't have a leg to stand on.

Nitish, or his party, haven't flashed such a rash dare at Lalu yet, but the line is getting drawn deeper between the Brothers Bihari. It isn't known whether the two have even had a conversation over what's to be done; evidence only suggests they have communicated through intermediaries and chosen proxies to send out signals to each other. None of those signals suggest a resolution.

The almost palpable clamour within the JDU is: Lalu ji must disown Shahabuddin's stand, and he mustn't come in the way of the government shuttling him back to jail. The one factor they are counting on is Lalu's personal investment in the stability of the government - two of his sons are in the Nitish cabinet.

But Lalu isn't betraying his nerve or appearing to oblige. Returning to Patna from Delhi today, he refused to renounce Shahabuddin's pot-shot at Nitish, skirting questions on the well-worn plea that the crisis was a "media creation".

Nitish, meantime, is continuing to take an image-knock at Shahabuddin's hands. Almost purposefully defiant, Shahabuddin arrived in Siwan on Saturday at the head of a long motorcade that refused to stop at toll-gates along the way, much less pay up.

He was accompanied by two wanted henchmen known to be sharp-shooters and officially on the run from the law. "Shahabuddin is clearly out to cock a snook at Nitish Kumar, this is a moment he has been waiting for," said a senior officer who has dealt with Shahabuddin in the past.

"Shahabuddin has little to lose, it is Nitish who should worry over what losses he will incur, or already is."