By Thai Newsroom Reporters
PALANG PRACHARATH Party secretary-general Thammanat Prompow might probably be given a cabinet seat in a fresh negotiation with Deputy Prime Minister/party leader Prawit Wongsuwan or else he himself and some 20 other MPs would choose to be ousted from the largest government party, sources said today (Jan. 19).
Thammanat who concurrently acts as a Palang Pracharath MP of Payao held talk with Prawit, other Palang Pracharath MPs and members of the party’s executive board at the residence of the party leader in the premises of the First Infantry Regiment on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road to discuss the immediate future of the party’s secretary-general and some 20 other MPs at his command.
Such a partisan meeting was held at short notice, apparently rendering lack of a quorum in the House of Representatives since the Palang Pracharath MPs scrambled to Prawit’s residence.
According to the partisan sources, Thammanat told Prawit that he had been served injustice and mistreated by some of the Palang Pracharath members of cabinet and Palang Pracharath MPs following Sunday’s by-election for MP in Chumphorn and Songkhla where the candidates running under the tickets of the largest coalition partner in government were defeated by the Democrat contestants.
Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin who was in charge of Palang Pracharath Party’s Songkhla campaign reportedly joined the ranks of those who attributed their defeats in the southern constituencies to Thammanat’s “unacceptable performance” and agreed to the idea that a public poll be conducted to see if the party’s secretary-general was to blame for that.
Thammanat was obviously frustrated at the accusations circulated on a Line group among some of the partisan members and called for a prompt “settlement.”
The party’s secretary-general might be sooner or later given a cabinet seat in exchange for his continuing to stay with Prawit’s camp or else he and some 20 Palang Pracharath MPs at his command might manage to get themselves ousted from the biggest coalition partner and find a new party to join in a 60-day timeframe as provided by law, the sources said.
Last September, Thammanat was deposed as deputy agriculture and cooperatives minister alongside Naruemon Pinyosinwat as deputy labour minister by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha following a no-confidence motion in which he was accused of having quietly orchestrated a novel plot for certain government MPs to abstain from voting for the embattled premier following a four-day censure debate.
Prawit reportedly insisted that Thammanat and his followers stay put among the rank and file of Palang Pracharath Party with the idea that a ministerial seat be given to the party’s secretary-general being taken into account.
The deputy premier has apparently taken the side of Thammanat whom several Palang Pracharath members of cabinet had desperately tried to get deposed of the post of the party’s secretary-general following the no-confidence motion and subsequent ouster of him from the Prayut cabinet.
These Palang Pracharath members of cabinet largely viewed as “antagonistic” to the party’s secretary-general include Digital Economy & Society Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn, Deputy Finance Minister Santi Prompat and Suchart, among others.
A press conference is expected at the party’s headquarters tomorrow (Jan 20), however.
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Palang Pracharath Party secretary-general Thammanat Prompow. Photos: Matichon
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