Cabinet shakeup looms after Bhumjaithai rebuffs Pheu Thai's portfolio offer

A Cabinet shakeup is expected this week, with the Bhumjaithai party being excluded from the new line-up, after the party rejected the Pheu Thai party’s offer to trade the Interior Ministry for the Public Health Ministry and a Prime Minister’s Office post.

Anutin Charnvirakul, the interior minister and Bhumjaithai party leader, told the “Jo Luek Thua Thai/ Inside Thailand” TV talk show that he received a call from Prommin Lertsuridej, the secretary-general to the prime minister, asking for an urgent meeting at 3pm yesterday to discuss the offer to trade the portfolios.

Anutin said that he rejected the offer outright, without waiting for the Pheu Thai party‘s 48-hour deadline for his answer.

It is reported that Dr. Prommin immediately informed former prime minster Thaksin Shinawatra about Anutin’s rejection of the offer.

The source also said that a Cabinet reshuffle is expected by the end of Friday, with the ruling Pheu Thai party gaining two extra seats, including the interior portfolio.

The remaining Cabinet seats will be re-allocated among the coalition parties, with the renegade factions in each party, or the so-called “cobra” factions, being taken into consideration, such as the rebel faction led by Suchart Chomklin in the United Thai Nation party.

Meanwhile, People’s party deputy leader Sirikanya Tansakul, said today that she would welcome the Bhumjaithai party to the opposition camp, adding that this will substantially increase the opposition’s strength in parliament.

Rumours of a Cabinet reshuffle have been circulating for weeks, as the rift between the Bhumjaithai and Pheu Thai parties widened, especially over the probe into Senate election collusion, in which the Bhumjaithai party has been implicated.

The rift reached its climax when the Election Commission summoned the party’s heavyweights, including Anutin and Newin Chidchob, the de facto leader, to acknowledge charges of attempting to subvert the democratic system in connection with Senate election collusion.