[1] The Friends of Newin Group was formed as a faction of the PPP in after the 2007 election in which the pro-Thaksin People's Power Party under Samak Sundaravej won the plurality of seats in the National Assembly.
Somchai had to resign as the Constitutional court dissolved the People's Power Party and two other coalition partners for election fraud on December 2, 2008.
On 9 December 2008, the group's leader Newin Chidchob caused a breakthrough in Thai politics by announcing his support for Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, of the party that was in opposition to the PPP-led government, as the next prime minister of Thailand.
It is alleged that Army commander and co-leader of the 2006 coup, General Anupong Paochinda, coerced the MPs of the Friends of Newin Group to endorse a Democrat Party-led coalition, which would secure enough parliamentary votes to allow Abhisit to be elected prime minister[2][3] On December 13, Thaksin Shinawatra, Newin's former boss and benefactor, in a recorded message played at a National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (or UDD) rally, blasted the group as 'traitors and betrayers of the people.
[7] The Bhumjai Thai Party, where the former Friends of Newin MPs are now, has about 32 members in the House of Representatives in 2011: