As anxiety and tension increases in Bangkok due to fears of a possible military coup, rural reds gathered in Nakhon Ratchasima yesterday to prepare a coordinated response.

About 5,000 red shirts from several northern and northeastern provinces meet at the Chalermphrakiart Sports Stadium in Nakhon Ratchasima yesterday to discuss the planned shutdown of Bangkok. PRASIT TANGPRASERT

Its leadership called for nationwide rallies along major roads of provincial towns on Monday to counter attempts to shut down Bangkok by the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC).

But grassroots red-shirt leaders told the Bangkok Post that a military coup will prompt a greater and fiercer response.

"If anything happens, we can mobilise just as many as people. We will communicate with our members and be on standby.

"No one can wipe out the red shirts from this country," said Mr Chavit Suriya, a district leader from Nonthaburi's Bang Bua Thong district.

Mr Suriya was among several thousand district- and sub-district core members who met at the Chalermphrakiart Stadium in Nakhon Ratchasima province yesterday.

The red shirts met to work out operating procedures if a coup takes place.

As far as Mr Suriya is concerned, there are more reds backing the government than protesters opposing it.

The population of the North and the Northeast outnumbers that of the South, and one-third of Bangkok comprises people from the North and Northeast.

Chan Chaiya, a core member of the Democracy Radio Organisation of Thailand (Drot), said people have been enlightened and learned huge lessons from political activity over the past several years.

Drot is an independent red-shirt group comprising 12 community radio stations in Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi, and Samut Prakan and 12 other stations nationwide.

The group says it is able to mobilise quickly and at times separately from the UDD. "Active members are fully alert. If the military tries to block our signal in the event of a coup, we still have 10,000 members on Line and other types of communications such as Skype.

"Those who cannot join to protest against a coup will provide supplies and funding too," said Mr Chan, a former cartoonist for a daily business newspaper, now better known in Samut Prakan as the Noom Korat radio host.

Mr Chan's group is among several splinter red-shirt groups unhappy with the mainstream UDD but which remain firm in their commitment to fierce resistance against a coup.

On Sunday night, Drot will stage rallies comprising convoys of motorcycles and pickup trucks from Ayutthaya, Samut Prakan and Nakhon Ratchasima to show its disagreement with the PDRC plan to bog down the capital.

"Bangkok belongs to the whole nation, not just to certain Bangkokians," he said.

DJ Klong Khaoniew ("Sticky Rice Box") from Pathum Thani's Lam Luk Ka district said caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has done the right thing by refusing to resign.

"She is not just Thaksin Shinawatra's sister. She is not just a representative of the Pheu Thai Party or her own family. Yingluck is the leader of this country; she represents the voices of lovers of democracy," he said.

"That's why she did the right thing by not resigning from her post, despite the looming coup threat," the DJ said.

Radio stations could mobilise supporters to launch counter-coup activities without being intercepted by any special branch police.

DJ Khaoniew believes frontliners against a coup will be police and dissident military officers.

Another rural red-shirt leader, DJ Sukreep for Sri Ram Community Radio in Ayutthaya, said: "There will be more people joining us, as public sentiment is changing.

"Those not active in politics whose lives have been affected by the PDRC protests and blockades will cross over to our side.

"The people will have the right to stage a protest against any coup which topples the elected government," said DJ Sukreep.

UDD leader Tida Tavornseth said yesterday that PDRC leader Suthep Thaugsuban was organising the mass rally to shut down Bangkok on Monday to create conditions which will force the army to stage a coup.

"Suthep is not attempting to overthrow the Thaksin regime, but actually he is overthrowing democracy and throwing support behind a military coup," she said.

Caretaker Deputy Commerce Minister and UDD co-leader Nattawut Saikuar said red rallies would start along main roads of various provinces at 9am on Monday in response to the so-called Bangkok shutdown.

Mr Suthep will see clearly how many people there are who oppose him, he said.

He challenged Mr Suthep to lead rallies in the Northeast and the North to see how many people in those regions support or oppose him and the PDRC.

Northeastern and northern provinces are political strongholds of the Pheu Thai Party while southern provinces are a political base of the opposition Democrat Party.