Pheu Thai leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra has taken on another key role in the party, chairing a panel that will try to revive its fortunes in Bangkok, where it was swept aside by the political avalanche of Move Forward in last year’s election.
Ms Paetongtarn on Thursday signed an order to form a panel to map out political strategies for MPs and Bangkok Metropolitan councillors, monitor their performances and give them advice.
She leads the 15-member panel which also has four veteran party executives as advisers.
Pheu Thai and other parties were swept aside by Move Forward in the May 14 election last year in the contest for Bangkok. It won 32 of the capital’s 33 seats, and almost made a clean sweep before a vote recount gave Pheu Thai the final seat.
Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, has also been openly campaigning for the political revival of Pheu Thai, despite parole conditions that prohibit him from engaging in political activity.
The former prime minister on Wednesday declared a strong determination to regain all seats in Nonthaburi, next door to Bangkok, in the next poll.
“We will sweep all the seats in Nonthaburi. Someone took them all but we will take all of them back,” he declared at a birthday party for the 79-year-old Nonthaburi mayor Somnuek Thantadechakul, amid cheers from his supporters.
Move Forward won by a landslide in Nonthaburi in the election last year, taking all eight seats and leaving other parties in the dust. Nonthaburi once was a political base of Pheu Thai.
