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Thaksin's no-confidence motion, which was initially aimed at undermining Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva to pave way for an early general election, has backfired. Instead, it has opened up a can of worms within the opposition.

A leading Pheu Thai MP from the Northeast came up with the devastating admission that at least nine opposition MPs are now leaning towards the Phum Jai Thai Party, a vital coalition partner for the Democrat-led government.

That, in effect, meant that a number of Thaksin's MPs had in fact defected. He had earlier called them "two-headed snakes".

 The former premier's earlier conviction that he could control every single MP in his party is now badly shaken.

Another senior Pheu Thai Party member was so upset with the outcome of the censure vote that he angrily declared: "It's obvious that some MPs may be physically with us but their hearts are with Newin [Chidchob, leader of the breakaway faction that joined the coalition]. Please stop behaving like parasites."

There is no doubt that most Pheu Thai Party members know who the nine "traitors" are. (They have also been called the "nine cobras" from Aesop's Fables.)

But Thaksin's hands are tied. He is caught in a dilemma. If he does nothing, defections could snowball. If, on the other hand, he decides to teach them a lesson by kicking them out, he could well add to Abhisit's political strength. All he could do on this occasion, as he has recently grown fond of complaining about, was to "swallow [his] own blood" until he can find a more effective way to deal with his party's rebels.

The unexpectedly high number of abstentions among the opposition MPs was what irked the party's leadership the most. There were 12 each for the votes against four Democrat Cabinet members, including the prime minister. But in the case of Interior Minister Chaovarat Charnveerakul, the number of abstentions rose dramatically to 20, and for his deputy Boonjong Wongtrairat it was 18.

The fact that Chaovarat is the leader of the Phum Jai Thai Party, and Boonjong of its deputies, underscores the emerging power of this third party that could pull the rug from under Thaksin's and Pheu Thai's feet.

What's worse, some of the cobras were ready to step out to explain why they had decided to ignore the party line. One told reporters: "For one thing, I used to work closely with Khun Chaovarat and Boonjong. It's hard for me to vote against them. For another, the opposition MPs' evidence against them was too weak to be convincing. So, I was following my conscience in casting the vote."

The rebels could, in fact, claim that they were doing more than just following their consciences. They could also claim they were exercising their constitutional right to a free vote. Unlike the 1997 constitution, the current charter doesn't bind MPs to their respective party lines in casting major votes.

Having failed in his parliamentary strategy to oust the Abhisit government, Thaksin will now go all out with his alternative tactic to apply pressure on the coalition. Today's/Yesterday's rally of red-shirted anti-government protestors is/was being openly orchestrated by Thaksin himself.

It's a huge gamble - one in which Thaksin's political offensive will become do-or-die. It is considered the only option left open to him as Abhisit consolidates his position and his legitimacy grows in proportion to every major blunder a desperate Thaksin commits.