BANGKOK – Thailand’s populist Pheu Thai Party announced on Monday that it was forming an alliance with the Bhumjaithai Party, and was open to other parties joining in to form a new government and end a political stalemate that has gripped the country since a general election two months ago.

“Pheu Thai and Bhumjaithai Party will form the government with the support of other parties,” said Pheu Thai leader Cholnan Srikaew.

He said real estate mogul Srettha Thavisin remained the party’s candidate for prime minister.

The move comes after Pheu Thai began courting conservative parties to form a new coalition after breaking away from a previous pro-democracy bloc led by the reformist Move Forward Party.

Mr Pita Limjaroenrat, Move Forward’s leader, was blocked from taking the prime minister’s job through votes in Parliament despite winning the May general election.

Move Forward has since been sidelined, and Pheu Thai has stepped forward to put together its own alliance.

“We didn’t get enough support from other parties and the Senate when Move Forward was trying to form a government,” Mr Cholnan said.

Pheu Thai, he said, now has a “high chance of success in forming a government with Bhumjaithai”.

Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul said his party, known for championing the decriminalisation of cannabis, laid down three conditions in allying with Pheu Thai, including that the new alliance leaves untouched Thailand’s strict laws on insulting the monarchy.

He added that his party would remain in the Pheu Thai-led alliance as long as Move Forward is not included.

Move Forward campaigned on reforming the controversial lese majeste laws, which many say are used to suppress opposition to the current royalist, military-backed government.

With the political stalemate continuing, self-exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, regarded as the patriarch of Pheu Thai, delayed his plan to return to Thailand this week, signalling that the party is far from reaching a deal to form a government.

Pheu Thai and Bhumjaithai, which placed second and third in the election, together command 212 seats in the 500-member House of Representatives, still well short of a majority and a threshold to seal the prime minister post.

It is not yet clear how Pheu Thai will muster enough lawmaker support to form a government. Any winning coalition will need the backing of the majority of the 750 lawmakers in a joint sitting of the Lower House and the military-appointed Senate.

A new date for Parliament to pick the next prime minister has not yet been set. A vote set for last Friday was cancelled, pending clarity from the Constitutional Court, which last week deferred making a decision about Mr Pita’s renomination petition. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG