By Thai Newsroom Reporters
BHUMJAITHAI LEADER ANUTIN Charnvirakul today (June 7) categorically insisted that the interior minister’s seat remain with him and that there be no room for bargaining over it with the Pheu Thai, core of the coalition government, as otherwise designed by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s father/de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra.
The titular Bhumjaithai leader who concurrently acts as deputy prime minister-cum-interior minister reconfirmed that his second largest coalition partner would ultimately disagree to leaving the interior portfolio to anyone else and that the naming of him as interior minister had been formally agreed upon between the Pheu Thai and the Bhumjaithai.
“There’s no room for bargaining over the interior portfolio after it had been agreed upon between the parties involved in the first place barely two years earlier,” Anutin concluded.
Anutin made his comments in response to Thaksin’s evident design to take the interior portfolio from the Bhumjaithai dominated and steered by de facto party boss Newin Chidchob, saying the next general election is barely a couple of years away.
The Bhumjaithai leader would probably be given either the public health or education portfolio in return for the imminent loss of the interior portfolio which is deemed considerably instrumental to the nationwide election for MPs in regard to the roles of its personnel ranging from provincial governors and chief district officers to kamnan (tambon headmen) and puyaibaan (village headmen), among other government officials in the provinces.
Meanwhile, the mega-billionaire, power playing Thaksin would prefer to remove Ruam Thai Sang Chart leader Pirapan Salirathavibhaga from the energy portfolio in the face of the apparent disintegrating of the party after de facto party boss/former coup leader-turned-prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had decided to keep his hands off politics and to only act as privy councillor.
However, Pirapan, the titular leader of the ultra-conservative party, would have no backup from among their rank and file in regard to the energy portfolio which he concurrently holds in addition to a deputy prime minister’s seat.
Deputy Ruam Thai Sang Chart leader/Deputy Commerce Minister Suchart Chomklin is spearheading an exodus of 20-plus renegade MPs from Pirapan’s party with a few cabinet seats being retained for his clique.
But Suchart’s scheme to skip over to the New Opportunity, led by former interior undersecretary Chatchai Promlert, would entirely fizzle out if the Ruam Thai Sang Chart executive board failed to formally oust those renegade MPs and himself from the party after they have been kicked out of the Pheu Thai-led coalition government at any given time, thus forcing them to remain as members of the same party which may consequently become part of the opposition bloc.
Nevertheless, some of the 36 Ruam Thai Sang Chart MPs including Industry Minister Eknath Prompan might probably skip over to the Klatham, led by maverick MP Thammanat Prompao, in order to stay with the coalition government rather than be pushed into the opposition bloc on condition that they be formally ousted from their current camp alongside Suchart’s clique of renegade lawmakers.
CAPTION:
Deputy Prime Minister/Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, left, and de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra. Top photo: Thai Rath, Front Page photo: PPTVHD36
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