MUMBAI, June 27: The two-day executive committee meeting of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) which ended here this afternoon has laid considerable stress on party unity and threatened stern action against partymen who attempted to destroy this to serve their own `petty self-interests'.

This was apparent in the coming together of arch foes Sharad Pawar and Shankarrao Chavan. The two have resolved to undertake state-wide tours from August 20 to help build the party at grass-roots level. While each will follow a different itinerary, they are likely to come together at several districts and talukas to percolate the message to the masses that unity of the party is now of supreme importance, according to MPCC president Ranjit Deshmukh.

At today's general body meeting of the MPCC, Pawar called upon partymen to now function as a responsible Opposition and take on the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government for the alleged unprecedented police repression let loose upon party activists and others by them.

He also called upon Congressmen to penetrate deep into the villages and hamlets of the state and integrate even the micro-communities at the grass-roots so that the Congress can once again claim to be representative of the classes as well as the masses.

Chavan in his turn took his partymen to task for forgetting their roots he was extremely critical of projects like that of the Sahara resort in Lonavla which he said was gobbling up farmers' land by the acres without so much as a peep out of the Congress.

``We claim to represent the farmers. How can we be so unconcerned about the hardship they are being subjected to by such rapid urbanisation of the rural areas'' he asked. Chavan also called for a dedicated campaign against the Sena-BJP government's contract with Enron and the Dabhol Power Corporation.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.