Dejnattawit Teriyapirom, son of former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom, has resigned from the Pheu Thai Party, citing negative remarks made about his father by a lawyer of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Mr Dejnattawit, 28, had joined Pheu Thai only in September and been introduced as a young member and potential MP candidate for Chiang Mai province.
Media quoted him as saying that he filed his resignation letter with Pheu Thai on Nov 13.
Many media organisations reported that he would join the Palang Pracharath Party that Industry Minister Uttama Savanayana heads, but he said many parties had proffered invitations and he had yet to make a decision.
His father Boonsong, 58, was the commerce minister in the Yingluck Shinawatra administration. On Aug 25 last year the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions found Boonsong and 16 others guilty of fake government-to-government (G2G) rice deals. He was given a 42-year prison sentence.
It was reported that he suffered from a herniated disc and would undergo surgery at Police General Hospital next Tuesday.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission recently said it had expanded its investigation in the fake G2G rice case and found more wrongdoers.
Rice claimed to be have been sold under G2G deals came from the Yingluck government's rice stock raised through her rice-pledging scheme.
The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions in September last year sentenced her in absentia to five years in jail for failing to stop the massive corruption in the loss-plagued rice scheme despite having been told of it. She fled the country in August last year, joining her brother Thaksin in self-exile.
