The Pheu Thai Party and the Thai Raksa Chart Party will work side by side in the next poll to capture the most seats from the constituency and the party-list systems, according a Pheu Thai source.
The source said the "dual-party" strategy was designed to up the ante in election and plug Pheu Thai's weaknesses in the next poll.
Concerns have mounted within Pheu Thai that it might not capture any seats on the party list on account of the new election method.
Under the poll system, parties which win MP seats in the constituencies will not get MPs under the list system.
However, the parties which lose in the constituencies will see their votes tallied up and if they are enough such votes, they will earn party-list seats.
The source said that some Pheu Thai members were afraid that the party, which is expected to fare strongly in the constituencies, will receive few list seats, if any at all.
Pheu Thai's poll strategy is to collaborate with the Thai Raksa Chart, a party already registered with the Election Commission for some time. Thai Raksa Chart, which is likely to count Pheu Thai defectors among its members, will be suited for raking in the "loser votes", which would translate into list seats.
According to the source, if and when the two parties, as well as others who share the same political ideologies form an alliance after the poll, they hope to have more than 250 MP seats between them, which will hand them a parliamentary majority.
However, the source said that Pheu Thai does not plan to stand in all 350 constituencies nationwide. In fact, it is eyeing a contest in only 250 constituencies, which will leave Thai Raksa Chart to run in the 100 other constituencies which the Pheu Thai decides to opt out of.
That said, Thai Raksa Chart is not banking on its chances of winning constituency MP seats as it is more interested in securing the loser votes.
The source added many veteran former Pheu Thai MPs would rather stay with the party than move to Thai Raksa Chart, which is believed to be more interested in electing younger politicians as its executives at its general assembly today.