Uttar Pradesh and Bihar together send 120 MPs to India's 545-member parliament, which will be chosen in the five-round election that closes May 10.

"It is a fair assessment to say that we are not at the top in those states," Sonia said in an interview with the Hindustan Times newspaper published Sunday.

But she said neither her party nor the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be able to form a government without a coalition.

Uttar Pradesh alone has 80 parliamentary constituencies including those of Gandhi and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. In the outgoing parliament, the BJP held 29 seats from the state and Congress had 10.

Campaigning for districts that vote this week closes Sunday night.

Sonia, the widow of slain prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, dismissed BJP charges she was unfit for office because she was originally from Italy.

"They always drag it out when they think the Congress is getting stronger," Sonia said.

Congress spearheaded India's independence movement and ruled the country for 45 years but last held power in 1996 as the 119-year-old party's support base shrinks.

Gandhi said she took over the party leadership in 1998 because it was ailing and not necessarily with the plan to become the fourth prime minister from the dynasty that began with India's first premier Jawaharlal Nehru.

"It is hard for some people to understand why anyone would join politics except to become prime minister. But that's not why I joined," she said.