By Thai Newsroom Reporters
PRIME MINISTER PAETONGTARN Shinawatra’s father/de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra has quietly resolved to keep the Bhumjaithai, albeit as the coalition government’s thorn in the side, whilst kicking out the Ruam Thai Sang Chart in near future, a partisan source said over the weekend.
Given unconfirmed, yet welcomed news reports that de facto Ruam Thai Sang Chart boss/former coup leader-turned-prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had eventually kept his hands off politics for good, the mega-billionaire power-playing Thaksin found himself more breathing space with a new cabinet lineup to conjure up during the latter part of this month.
If the disintegrating Ruam Thai Sang Chart was imminently expelled out of the Pheu Thai-led coalition, the energy and industry portfolios currently held by the military-installed camp would be left vacant and up for grabs by the Pheu Thai, core of the current coalition, and the Bhumjaithai, the second largest coalition partner under de facto party boss Newin Chidchob, the partisan source said.
The titular Ruam Thai Sang Chart leader Pirapan Salirathavibhaga and Ruam Thai Sang Chart secretary-general Eknath Prompan are currently holding the energy and industry portfolios respectively.
“Given the planned ouster of ‘Uncle Tu’s’ ultra-conservative party from the government, four ministerial seats would almost certainly be up for grabs amongst the Pheu Thai, Bhumjaithai and probably Kla Tham. The boss has finally created a win-win situation,” the source said, referring to Prayut, now a privy councilor, and the prime minister’s father respectively.
Though the titular Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul may have strongly disagreed to his being removed as interior minister at Thaksin’s whims to take direct control of such a politically significant portfolio, he might probably be given the energy portfolio in return, according to the partisan source.
The planned expulsion of the disintegrating Ruam Thai Sang Chart would practically follow suit of the Palang Pracharath led by former deputy prime minister Prawit Wongsuwan where one half of their 40 MPs led by maverick MP Thammanat Prompao skipped over to the Kla Tham, keeping themselves as part of the coalition government whilst leaving their former partisan colleagues in the opposition bloc.
The renegade faction of 20-plus Ruam Thai Sang Chart MPs would undoubtedly cast yea votes for the Pheu Thai-led government’s legislations and motions though they may literally mingle with opposition lawmakers at parliament.
Nevertheless, the Pheu Thai-led government would be adequately stable with solid support from an estimated 300 coalition MPs, compared to less than 200 opposition MPs.
The new cabinet lineup is largely speculated sooner or later after the upcoming June 13, the date on which the de facto Pheu Thai boss is scheduled, among others, to attend a court trial before Supreme Court judges in charge of criminal lawsuits against persons in political positions pertaining to the six-month-long Police Hospital fake-out saga which had allegedly been staged to keep himself from being literally thrown behind bars at Bangkok Remand prison to otherwise serve a curtailed, one-year jail sentence upon his return from self-exile abroad in 2023.
The Medical Council of Thailand has earlier formally refuted the former inmate at large’s undocumented claims of having “critical illnesses” which would have otherwise justified his being contentiously granted the privilege of staying in a premium ward of Police Hospital in lieu of one in the premises of the prison.
CAPTION:
De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra and his daughter/Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, left, and de facto Bhumjaithai boss Newin Chidchob with Deputy Prime Minister/Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul. Photo: Thai Rath
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