BANGKOK ¨C Thai politics were in chaos on Wednesday as the ruling Pheu Thai party said it had sought royal approval to dissolve the parliament for a new election, moments after the biggest group in the house said it would back another party to form a government.

The chief whip of the Pheu Thai party, which last week suffered the loss of its prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, to a court ruling, said the party had decided to forge ahead with seeking a snap election.

Moments earlier, the opposition People¡¯s Party, which controls nearly a third of lower house seats, said it was backing the rival Bhumjaithai party¡¯s ambitious leader Anutin Charnvirakul for premier, a potential game-changer that could break days of political deadlock.

Paetongtarn¡¯s dismissal last Friday for an ethics violation triggered a scramble for power, with her Pheu Thai party racing to shore up a fragile coalition with a slender majority as its former alliance partner Bhumjaithai mounted a bold challenge to form its own government.

Her removal was the latest twist in a tumultuous, two-decade battle for power among Thailand¡¯s rival elites, with Paetongtarn the sixth premier from or backed by the billionaire Shinawatra family to be ousted by the military or judiciary and the second in the space of a year.

Pheu Thai¡¯s move to dissolve the house comes as the once-dominant populist party founded by Paetongtarn¡¯s billionaire father Thaksin Shinawatra has been hemorrhaging support and facing protests against its rule.

There are conflicting opinions among law experts in Thailand, however, as to whether a caretaker government has the authority to seek house dissolution.

People¡¯s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut said the party would back Bhumjaithai to prevent the return of a coalition government that was not fit to rule again, but it would not join its government.

He said a parliamentary vote on a new prime minister could take place on Friday.

¡°There is a risk that there would be a return of the old coalition which has failed to run the country in the last two years, and a risk of the return of the coup maker as prime minister,¡± he told a news conference, referring to Prayuth Chan-ocha, a general who seized power in 2014 and remains eligible to become premier, despite retiring.