A Thai temple in India will be packed with former Pheu Thai ministers and MPs joining a traditional krathin or "robe-offering" ceremony this Saturday, but the man they came to see and his sister will not be there.
Ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has reportedly cancelled his trip to join the merit-making activity at Wat Pa Bodh Gaya in Bihar.
Former prime ministers Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra, and Ms Yingluck’s son Supasek Amornchat, were caught by an alert cameraman while eating at a McDonald's in Tokyo on Tuesday. (Facebook photo)
The cancellation was revealed Wednesay as Thaksin and his younger sister Yingluck met in Tokyo, before their "scheduled" trip to India.
One media report said the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) had asked the Shinawatras not to meet their supporters there.
The NCPO, which has banned political gatherings in Thailand, reportedly contacted the siblings through Pol Col Wathanyu Watcharapalothai, a police officer accompanying Ms Yingluck on her travels. The NCPO asked them to cancel the trip and the pair cooperated, the report said.
However, an aide close to Ms Yingluck denied the NCPO had pressured her and her brother. The aide said Ms Yingluck had not included a trip to India on her itinerary when she asked the NCPO for permission to go abroad.
The visit to Tokyo is Ms Yingluck's second overseas trip since the May 22 coup. In late July, she asked for the NCPO's permission to go to Paris to attend her brother's birthday party.
Media reports earlier said Ms Yingluck and her son, who left Thailand last Sunday, would meet Thaksin in Japan for a holiday before the pair took a private jet to India for merit making.
Her aide said a former Pheu Thai MP who wanted the two former premiers to join the ceremony on Oct 25 probably told the media the Shinawatras would attend.
Though Thaksin will not be present, former Pheu Thai ministers and MPs are still scheduled to go to the event at the temple where Thaksin's younger brother Payap entered the monkhood.
Mr Payap, a former chairman of Pheu Thai MPs in the Northeast, will join the ceremony, according to a Pheu Thai source. Other key figures will include former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat and his wife Yaowapa. Ms Yaowapa, a former Pheu Thai MP for Chiang Mai, is also Thaksin's younger sister.