Two of Thaksin Shinawatra's most trusted colleagues, Somkid Jatusripitak and Sudarat Keyuraphan, will be on the Thai Rak Thai party list to contest the April 2 general election, and could become candidates to succeed Thaksin if he has to step down, party sources said yesterday.

Caretaker Agriculture Minister Sudarat would be No 3 on the list, caretaker Deputy Premier Somkid No 4, and former House speaker Bhokin Bhalakula No 5, according to the sources.

Somkid and Sudarat were not on the TRT party list when it contested the February 2005 election, making them ineligible to serve as prime minister, who needs to be an elected MP.

The unnamed TRT sources said that either Somkid or Sudarat could replace Thaksin as prime minister if he had to leave his office as a way to get out of the political crisis.

The caretaker prime minister said yesterday that he would remain No 1 on the TRT party list to be submitted when the registration of election candidates begins today. He also said that outgoing Deputy Premier and Industry Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit would be No 2, but he declined to disclose further details.

Thaksin yesterday evening met with other key figures of the party to prepare the list. The meeting lasted almost three hours.

TRT executive board member Sutham Saengprathum said yesterday that the party is in full gear preparing MP candidates and constituencies for the general election,

Sutham was speaking after Thaksin called a meeting with the party executive board in preparation for the snap election to be held on April 2. He rejected allegations that the party has set aside Bt3 million for each constituency candidate to use in the election. He said there is no need for the party to use that much money as there are no competitors.

Sources from Thai Rak Thai said the party yesterday gave constituency MP candidates in Bangkok Bt1 million for election campaign expenses and Bt2 million to provincial candidates. The total amount reached Bt764 million, they said.

Defence Minister Thamarak Isarangura said the party will use the same policies as in the previous general election. The core of the campaign is urging voters to vote for Thai Rak Thai, if they want Thaksin as the next prime minister.

Thaksin said he and his Thai Rak Thai Party list candidates would submit their candidacies to the Election Commission (EC) today.

 Deputy Transport Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said the party would field 100 party list candidates .

EC chairman Vasana Puemlarp said the EC had decided not to postpone the election later than April 2 because there were no reasons to.

"The EC is ready, but if there are valid reasons to postpone we still have until midnight [12am this morning] as long as the applications have not started,'' he said.