``Very hard decisions are needed to retrieve the State from the debt trap and, therefore, Congress will prefer a clear-cut majority in the Assembly,'' the former Chief Minister said.

He agreed with the assessment of All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary, Madhavrao Scindia, that the coalition was ``entirely unstable''.

Pawar said the solution in such a scenario was not to take power but to see as to when it could go for polls.

Answering a query, Pawar said it was ``too early and too premature'' to think in terms of chalking out a common minimum programme by the non-BJP parties.

He, however, said such an exercise would not be difficult once the Vajpayee Government collapsed, as individual parties had their programmes ready.

The priority before the Congress, he said, was to revive theorganisation and not to form the Government ``by any means or any way''.

Pawar said the brainstorming session of senior Congress leaders at Pachmarhi had not totally rejected the concept of alliances. ``But without alliances we cannot fight is a proposition not acceptable''.

On the forthcoming Assembly elections in four states, he said the Congress has good prospects as the mood of the voter was to defeat the BJP.

As regards the key issue of entering into alliances for the Assembly polls, he felt there was no need for tie-ups in Delhi and Rajasthan.

In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress leadership will consult the State leaders on the issue of alliance and take an appropriate decision at the appropriate time. He said any arrangement in this regard would be such that the Congress would always be in the ``driver's seat''.

Asked whether the BJP would go in for snap polls in Uttar Pradesh along with the four states, Pawar said such a course of action depended upon the court case filed by Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) leader Mayawati on the defection of BSP MLAs in the State ``whose decision is round the corner''.

On Communist Party of India-Marxist's propagation of formation of a Third Front, he saw very little future for such a front. Taking a dig at the Left party, he said, ``It is quite convenient to talk about such a thing when you are only in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura''.

Describing the Vajpayee Government as ``non-performing and directionless'', he said the coalition seemed to be ``succumbing'' to directions of the RSS, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal.