The politicians agreed that Pramuan’s recent moves were ill intentioned and damaging to the party and its leader, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, according to MPs Pracha Prasobdee and Tewarith Nikorntes.

“Now that he [Pramuan] has refused to leave the party, we’ll submit our petition to the party’s ethics committee and the party leader for clear-cut action on the matter,” Pracha said.

Pramuan, a member of Thai Rak Thai’s dissident Wang Nam Yen faction, stirred up a hornet’s nest with his stinging comments against the country’s leadership at a seminar on royal powers Tuesday. Although Pramuan did not name any names, audience members at the Thammasat University panel discussion had no doubts about the subject of his criticism.

He told the audience on Tuesday that the country’s leadership was interfering with royal powers and running the country like a private company.

On Wednesday, a group of Thai Rak Thai MPs held a press conference at the Parliament building to attack Pramuan and demand that he resign as a party-list MP. Pramuan responded that he would not give up his House seat.

The party’s deputy leader, Yowvapa Wongsawat, Thaksin’s sister, said Pramuan should consider what to do next now that many of his colleagues disagree with what he had done.

“Pramuan is senior and experienced. He should be able to tell right from wrong,” she said.