GANDHINAGAR, July 10: First he was faced with threats by Congress members that they would withdraw support, and now two adverse court rulings; Gujarat Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela's `cup of troubles' seems to be overflowing. While his minority government may not be threatened at present, his position is beginning to look shaky.

On Tuesday, a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting made it clear that his friends in that group had been reduced to a minority. Out of the 45 present, barely a dozen supported the continuance of his government. Vaghela suffered another blow on Wednesday when the Gujarat High Court ordered status quo in two controversial decisions taken by his government. One of the petitioners in the two cases was represented by former Congress MP Haroobhai Mehta.

Another Congressman, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president Prabodh Raval, took Vaghela to task on the concessions in the Urban Land Ceiling Act case. The Congress, he warned, would not hesitate to take ``action'' against the chief minister if he continued to ignore party leaders while taking important policy decisions.

Congress has charged that despite being an ally of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Party , it was not informed of the changes in the Act. Raval warned that he would convey to the Congress high command the state unit's wish to withdraw backing to Vaghela. This diatribe was in line with the CLP chief's declaration yesterday that if Vaghela thought he could get by on good relations with the central Congress leadership alone while ignoring the party at the state level, he was ``grossly'' mistaken. Realising its bete noire is vulnerable at the moment, BJP has also moved in for the kill. While former chief minister and senior BJP leader Suresh Mehta is out to ``expose the scandal in clearance of 12 power projects'', another legislator, Haren Pandaya, has dragged Vaghela to court for alleged misuse of office. A senior member of the chief minister's camp said, ``The composite effect of all this has led to erosion of authority of the government and people's confidence in it.''

Conceding that there were problems with the Congress, Vaghela's right-hand man Vishnu Pandya said these had arisen because the coordination committee of the two parties had not been able to meet in the past few months. ``As a remedial measure, a meeting is being convened between the leaders of both the parties to hammer out differences, if any,'' he said.

Sources said Vaghela had held a meeting of his confidants at the residence of minister Anil Joshiyara to discuss the threat of withdrawal of support. Publicly, the chief minister has refrained from attacking the Congress. ``It is up to the party's high command to take a decision on the issue,'' he told The Indian Express in Gandhinagar adding that the CLP's demand was not a ``pressure tactic'' but their genuine ``feeling''.

However, Vaghela refuted the charge that he was not taking the Congress into confidence on important matters. ``I have always consulted senior Congress leaders. But during the past few days, consultations could not be held due to some trouble in that party,'' he said. On the issue of the Urban Land Ceiling Act, he said the Government had invited Chaudhary and Raval among others to participate in the talks on the issue, but they could not make it for reasons best known to them.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.