NEW DELHI: Friends-turned-foes Nitish Kumar and Mulayam Singh are at loggerheads ahead of the assembly elections in Bihar.

In an interview to a TV channel, Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said, "Is Mulayam a vice chancellor of the University of Secularism....and are we just research scholars?"

Nitish was reacting to comments made by the Samajwadi Party chief some days ago when he asked how the Bihar chief minister claimed to have secular credentials all of a sudden.

"Who is secular? People who ran the government with the BJP's support for 12 years? They are secular all of a sudden?" asked Yadav, referring to JD(U)'s tie-up with BJP in Bihar that ended two years ago.

"My party has consistently opposed the BJP. Look at what is happening in Bihar," he added.

READ ALSO: How is Nitish secular all of a sudden, asks Mulayam

Yadav further pointed out that many of his party workers were injured while fighting the BJP during the fall of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992.

The Samajwadi Party chief had earlier exited the 'Grand Alliance' with Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad in Bihar and said that his party would contest the elections in the state on its own.

Interestingly, Nitish Kumar had made similar comments in 2009 on then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Manmohan Singh had at that time said although Nitish professed secularism, the "handshake with Modi" at an NDA rally in May led to doubts in his (PM's) mind.

READ ALSO: PM no VC of 'university of secularism': Nitish

"The Prime Minister should not behave like the vice-chancellor of the `university of secularism'," Nitish told reporters then. "Secularism is a thing of perception and no one should claim a monopoly over it," he had said.