Sonia campaigns in Uttar Pradesh. (PTI)

New Delhi, Feb. 22: Sonia Gandhi has said ensuring the defeat of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance is her priority, not becoming the Prime Minister.

“For me, that (becoming Prime Minister) is not a priority. Let us see when the time comes,” the Congress chief said in a television interview, when asked about the leadership of the anti-BJP alliance that she aims to build for the Lok Sabha polls.

Though her party has been virtually projecting her as the leader of the likely alliance, Sonia has maintained silence on the issue to deny the NDA camp an opportunity to convert the election campaign into an Atal-versus-Sonia contest.

The BJP has been trying to run a personality oriented campaign by repeatedly invoking the “Atal-versus-who” slogan.

Referring obviously to the BJP’s attempts to drag in the personality angle, Sonia said the party was raking up her “foreign origin” to cover up the Vajpayee-led NDA government’s failures.

The Congress chief said she never felt like a foreigner just because she was born in Italy, though it might work adversely with some voters. “I have never felt that I am a foreigner. I am an Indian absolutely,” she said.

Sonia added she did not even feel resentful about the BJP’s repeated attempts to make her “foreign origin” an issue.

“It makes me laugh,” she said, because “wherever I go, especially in rural areas, in the midst of women and less fortunate people, I never feel that I am a foreigner”.

“They never look at me as a foreigner, because I am an Indian. In fact, I feel like a foreigner when I go abroad.” Sonia emphasised her transition from a foreigner to an Indian was “completed long ago”.

She once again skirted the issue of daughter Priyanka and son Rahul joining active politics. Sonia said she felt “really silly” to repeat the answer that she has been giving for months that it was up to her children to decide.

The Congress chief refused to say when she thought would be an appropriate time for them to join active politics. But Priyanka added fuel to speculations when she rushed to Allahabad yesterday to be with her mother for the television interview.

Besides, Priyanka was quoted as saying a couple of days ago that she might have to join active politics, much as she did not like the prospect of doing so.