Nitish Kumar is 'sandalwood' but who is the 'snake'?

Patna: In a bid to clear the air over his comment that made headlines earlier Wednesday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said that his 'snake' jibe was not aimed at his foe-turned-friend Lalu Prasad but at friend-turned-foe Bharatiya Janata Party.

During a conversation on Twitter, Nitish likened himself with `sandalwood' (chandan) when someone asked him how would he carry on development projects by joining hands with Lalu Prasad.

As soon as Kumar posted a couplet by famous mystic poet Kabir, the reference to the 'snake' was quickly interpreted as the one aimed at Lalu.

. @SunilVChandak Bihar’s development is my sole agenda.जो रहीम उत्तम प्रकृति, का करी सकत कुसंग| चन्दन विष व्यापत नहीं, लिपटे रहत भुजंग || — Nitish Kumar (@NitishKumar) July 21, 2015

However, later the Chief Minister tried to undo the damage by claiming that his barb was aimed at the BJP.

“I answered to a question where I said my agendum is development of Bihar. I wrote a couplet by Kabir because people know BJP spreads poison. Even by wrapping itself around me, BJP's poison could not affect me,” Nitish told reporters.

Last month, when Nitish Kumar was named as the Chief Ministerial candidate of the Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal combine in Bihar, Lalu had acknowledged indirectly that the alliance had been forced on them when he said: “I am ready to consume all kinds of poison.”

The show of unity between Lalu and Nitish is seen as a compulsion for the Janata Parivar, which lost badly in last year's Lok Sabha elections, in which BJP won out of 40 seats in Bihar.

Both the parties had to lick their wounds after being worsted by the BJP-led NDA in recently-concluded Legislative Council polls.