A recent Shinawatra weekend retreat to Khao Yai was anything but private and set tongues wagging as to why Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul paid a surprise visit to the family.
From the casual get-together, pictures were released, which were open to wild interpretation and speculation.
The pictures included Mr Anutin and former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra playing golf and the Bhumjaithai leader crooning along as Thaksin and his Pheu Thai leader daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra sang their favourite number, When You Say Nothing at All, by Ronan Keating.
Reading between the lines, observers believe the retreat was meant to cool tensions between Bhumjaithai and Pheu Thai.
Pheu Thai can ill-afford to lose the parliamentary support of Bhumjaithai which commands 71 seats, the third-biggest party.
After almost a year as coalition allies, the two parties were beginning to see friction between them coming to a head.
The Khao Yai retreat, however, was thought to be a bid to heal the rift. The solution could well lie in astute horse trading that culminates in the realisation of a power-sharing strategy that keeps both parties in government and ups the ante in their bid to be re-elected in the next election.
The two parties had their first coalition unity test early this year when Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin gave an interview to France 24, a French state-owned news outlet, in which he disclosed the government's intention to rein in the use of cannabis, which was decriminalised in 2022.
He reportedly spoke in favour of reclassifying cannabis as a narcotic, arguing the social ramifications of cannabis legalisation outweigh the economic gains from the plant being opened to medical use and for research purposes.
The premier's reclassification plan has since been followed up with Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsutin actively and vocally advocating for cannabis to be relisted as a narcotic before the year is out.
However, the plan surprised Mr Somsak's predecessor, Dr Cholnan Srikaew, who had declared while he was public health minister that the cannabis legalisation issue was too far along to turn back the clock.
As the proposed relisting groundwork got underway, Bhumjaithai refused to take the matter lying down since legalisation was one of its flagship policies, which it pushed through during the previous Prayut Chan-o-cha administration.
The re-criminalisation plan was first floated by Justice Minister Thawee Sodsong, who, despite being leader of the Prachachart Party, professes extraordinary closeness to Pheu Thai. It was not long before Mr Srettha took his cue and announced the government was moving towards getting cannabis back on the narcotics list.
Mr Somsak also rose to the occasion with cannabis re-criminalising steps he had laid out.
However, a major stumbling block is approaching. The planned restoration of cannabis as an illicit drug must gain approval from the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), as was done under the previous government when the plant was de-criminalised.
This time, though, the ONCB is not chaired by the prime minister but by Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga, who also leads the United Thai Nation (UTN) Party.
Mr Pirapan has reportedly pointed to the inconsistency in the way cannabis is now being pushed towards relisting by the very same people in the ONCB who de-criminalised it in the first place.
The deputy premier also noted the absence of a fundamental argument presented to the board that could decisively convince him of the critical need to make cannabis illegal again.
Then came the Khao Yai retreat, which Mr Srettha did not attend. The focus of attention was on what was said between Mr Anutin and Thaksin, who wields considerable influence over Pheu Thai and is widely respected by party stalwarts during their friendly round of golf.
Barely two days after the retreat, Mr Srettha held out an olive branch by ordering a draft bill to regulate cannabis use for medical and research and development purposes, a signal that the plant would be left off the narcotics list.
It was reported Mr Srettha had called a meeting with Mr Anutin and Mr Somsak to resolve political tensions over cannabis' re-criminalisation.
According to an observer, Pheu Thai could not have chosen a worse time to raise the idea of returning cannabis to the narcotics list.
The ruling party needs all the support it can muster from coalition partners to legislate its Digital Wallet handout scheme. If Pheu Thai had pursued its "reckless" course of action with cannabis, it was thought Bhumjaithai would exact revenge by voting down the wallet bill and leaving the government.
Without Bhumjaithai, the wallet bill would not have seen the light of day.
The observer said Bhumjaithai has gone from strength to strength after being identified as the "blue party" with which a staggering 150 of the 200 Senate members have maintained close ties.
Possible proof of such ties was played out in the July 23 election of the Senate speaker and two deputy speakers. Mongkol Surasajja, a former governor of Buri Ram, which is Bhumjaithai's political heartland, raked in an impressive 159 votes to become the speaker.
There could be trouble brewing
Tension between the ruling Pheu Thai Party and coalition partner the Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) is expected to rise following the Constitutional Court's ruling on the fate of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on Wednesday, according to observers.
Prawit: 'Infuriates' Thaksin
Paroled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Pheu Thai's de facto leader is said to be upset with PPRP leader Gen Prawit Wongsuwon and reportedly believes that the "the general of Baan Pa" is the mastermind behind the petition filed by former 40 senators against Mr Srettha.
"Baan Pa" refers to the Five Provinces Bordering Forest Preservation Foundation, located at the 1st Infantry Regiment in Bangkok's Phaya Thai district. The foundation is believed to be Gen Prawit's unofficial office.
After the Constitutional Court agreed to hear the petition against Mr Srettha, Thaksin raised questions about the former senators and their motives. The ex-premier was also quoted as saying: "If there's any trouble, it comes from someone in the forest. But it doesn't involve me. It involves the government."
The petition against Mr Srettha has to do with the controversial appointment of Pichit Chuenban as the Prime Minister's Office minister in the last cabinet reshuffle.
According to the 40 former senators, Mr Pichit was unfit to assume a cabinet post because he served jail time for contempt of court in 2008 for attempting to bribe Supreme Court officials in a controversial land case involving Thaksin.
The Constitutional Court is being asked to rule if Mr Srettha should be removed from office under Section 170 (4) and (5) of the charter, which deals with the ethics of cabinet ministers. The prime minister is supposed to have been aware of Pichit's questionable background when appointing him minister.
The ex-senators' petition targeting Mr Srettha is suspected to be a move to change the prime minister, which would give Gen Prawit, the PPRP's prime ministerial candidate, a shot at the top post.
Gen Prawit is also said to have infuriated Thaksin further after he took Wan Ubumrung, son of Pheu Thai stalwart and list MP Pol Capt Chalerm, under his wing as a PPRP member. Mr Wan quit the ruling party after being rebuked by party executives for fraternising with a party opponent in a recent local election in Pathum Thani.
The relationship between the Ubumrung family and the Shinawatras has turned sour, with Pheu Thai leader Paetongtarn, Thaksin's daughter, having removed Pol Capt Chalerm from the party's MP chatroom in the Line application.
According to Ms Paetontarn, kicking Pol Capt Chalerm out of the group chat was the result of a text message he sent declaring he was moving to a new party. His subsequent messages had made other MPs feel uncomfortable, she said, but did not elaborate.
A rumour has spread recently that the PPRP risks being booted out of the coalition, with analysts saying the target of the purge is more likely to be a group controlled by Gen Prawit.
The PRRP is said to comprise two camps led by the party leader, who controls 13 MPs, and PPRP secretary-general and Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Thamanat Prompow, who commands the remaining 27 lawmakers.
Capt Thamanat is said to have aligned himself more with the ruling party than Gen Prawit, so between the two camps, the axe is more likely to fall on Gen Prawit's group, according to observers.
Even if Gen Prawit's group is shown the door, the coalition will still hold a solid 301 votes, which is a strong majority. However, a group of 21 Democrat MPs led by party leader Chalermcha Sri-on is waiting in the wings to strengthen the government.
In the event of the Democrats replacing Gen Prawit's group, the Pheu Thai-led government will have 322 votes from 12 political parties, with some political observers already giving it a nickname: the "Ruam Chart" (integrated nation) government.
The opposition camp will drop from 185 MPs to 164, a number which could fall even further if some MPs from the dissolved Move Forward Party decide to cross the floor to government parties.
However, Thanaporn Sriyakul, director of the Political and Public Policy Analysis Institute, told the Bangkok Post that a real "Ruam Chart" government will materialise only when Capt Thamanat's camp is expelled from the PPRP and is forced to find a new political party within 30 days.
"If they have the guts to ask Gen Prawit to expel them, it is highly likely they will join the Pheu Thai Party and fulfil the ruling party's big boss's wish," he said.
According to Mr Thanaporn, one of Thaksin's wishes is to make Pheu Thai bigger than the MFP so the ruling party can have more bargaining power over other parties.
Following the court ruling to dissolve the MFP on Wednesday, the number of MPs formerly attached to the MFP has dropped to 142, compared with Pheu Thai's 141.
The drop is attributed to former MFP executives being banned from politics for 10 years by the Constitutional Court order made in tandem to the disbandment ruling.