DHAKA: A few years ago, Suthep Thaugsuban was a suit-and-tie wearing deputy prime minister of Thailand and a senior executive of the country’s oldest political party.

Now, the 64-year-old career politician has ditched his office attire, distanced himself from the opposition Democrat Party and found a new calling as a street fighter.

Suthep is the mastermind of Thailand’s latest round of street protests and has vowed to topple prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra by taking over every government ministry.

After storming the finance ministry earlier this week and camping there for two nights with thousands of supporters, Suthep marched into a sprawling government office complex where he remained locked on Thursday in a stand-off with the police, refusing to leave.

His group, the largest, said it will pause to rest and will not march on Thursday, although smaller, allied groups of protesters are expected to converge on Bangkok’s police headquarters.

‘We like peaceful methods,’ Suthep told reporters, his voice hoarse from speaking above the crowd’s roar. But he added, ‘If we don’t succeed, then I am prepared to die in the battlefield’.

‘The people will quit only when the state power is in their hands,’ he said, reports The Straits Times.

‘There will be no negotiation.’

BDST: 1222 HRS, NOV 28, 2013