Kishanganj, Oct. 18: Sonia Gandhi today pointed to Nitish Kumar’s BJP ties to question his secular credentials as she kicked off her Bihar campaign with a rally in Muslim-dominated Kishanganj.

Her party, however, has been at the receiving end of the secularism stick from former ally Lalu Prasad, who has been blaming it for all the events in the lead-up to the Babri demolition.

“The Congress has always stuck with secularism,” Sonia said and asked how the chief minister could call himself secular when he was hand in glove with those “dead against secularism”.

“We lost elections but never compromised and I assure you that we will never compromise with communalism,” Sonia said.

Yesterday at Sontha, barely 10km from here, Lalu Prasad had accused the Congress of compromising with secularism but stopped short of directly blaming it for the recent Ayodhya verdict.

“The Congress was in power when the Babri Masjid’s locks were opened, when the shilanyas took place, and when the mosque was desecrated. Now the court verdict has come but I don’t want to comment on it. It is not the final verdict; it will be challenged in the Supreme Court,” the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief told a large crowd.

He claimed the Congress would not have been able to fight communalism without him.

Sonia, though, did not focus her attack on Lalu Prasad and instead targeted Nitish. “He claims to be secular but is in alliance with those who are the biggest enemy of secularism,” she said.

Although she did not attack Lalu Prasad’s secular credentials, she accused him of doing nothing for the welfare of Muslims. “What did he (Lalu Prasad) do for the Muslims?” she asked, and the crowd roared back: “Nothing.”