Addressing a gathering of villages at Chhani, Chudasama, however, specified that he wasn't so much challenging the State Government's decision as representing the villagers' concerns.

Talking to Express Newsline, he said he would not support the Congress' moving of the High Court. ``First I will represent the villagers' views before the State Government'', the MLA said, adding that he hoped to get a positive response.

Three days ago, district Congress leaders had convened a meeting to chalk out an action plan for a series of protests.

Questioning of the VMC would be able to provide civic amenities in the newly included areas, when it had failed proper attention to outlying localities like Makarpura, Chudasama said it was unlikely that the civic body would be equal to the task in the next five years.

Speaking on the occasion, District Sarpanch Sangh president Ashwin Patel claimed that the Government had not listened to the villagers before taking the inclusion decision in principle. He urged the sarpanchs to pass resolutions opposing the Government's move.

Several representatives, speaking on the occasion, criticised the VMC's alleged failure to provide proper civic amenities and expressed apprehension that the urbanisation of the villages would snatch away the villagers' independence. One of the villagers said that the move would violate the spirit of Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel's Gokul Grams Yojna.

Chudasama, however, said there should be no harm in including villages like Sama, Tarsali, Harni and Chhani, which have been receiving VMC water, within the city limits. According to him, in Sama and Tarsali, the VMC had provided water supply in a majority of the areas, while Chhani residents wanted to be included in the city limits. But the government would have to consider the villagers' demands, he added.

Among those who attended the meeting were BJP members of Vadodara District Panchayat Narsinhgiri Goswami and Jashbhai Amin.