By Thai Newsroom Reporters
IN WHAT WAS SEEN as an ultimate twist in his political career, former transport minister Atirat Ratanaset is seeking re-election as MP in constituency-based mode in Nakhon Ratchasima under the banners of the People’s.
Atirat, an ex-MP of Nakhon Ratchasima who had been attached to the neo-conservative Pheu Thai under de facto party boss/inmate Thaksin Shinawatra from 2008 until 2018 and then registered as a partisan member of the ultra-conservative Palang Pracharath led by former deputy prime minister Prawit Wongsuwan during 2018 and last year, is now contesting the Feb.8 election in Constituency 7 of the northeastern province better known as Korat under the tickets of the reformist People’s.
Atirat was named deputy transport minister and then transport minister during the times of former army chief-turned-coup leader-turned-prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.
In the 2023 election, the People’s, then named the court-dissolved Move Forward, won three MP seats mostly covering inner districts of Nakhon Ratchasima, compared to 12 grabbed by the Pheu Thai and one by the Bhumjaithai.
Meanwhile, his father, namely Virat Ratanaset of the Palang Pracharath, has been earlier ruled guilty by Supreme Court judges in charge of criminal lawsuits against persons in political positions and sentenced to four years and six months in jail on accounts of misconduct perpetrated over the construction of futsal stadiums in the northeastern province and elsewhere. Virat, a former deputy agriculture & cooperatives minister and ex-MP of Nakhon Ratchasima, filed an appeal to the Supreme Court and was released under bail.
However, the Ratanaset family is largely known as one of the “Big Houses” of Nakhon Ratchasima which has a total of 16 constituencies.
CAPTIONS:
Former transport minister Atirat Ratanaset. Above photo – Thai Rath, Front Page photo – PPTVHD36
Insert – Palang Pracharathh leader Prawit Wongsuwan. Photo – Naewna
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