Thus, the two major "devil" parties had joined hands and as a Thai Rath columnist observed: "Chart Thai is now absolutely satanic." For Chart Thai, which had lost 15 members through defections, the merger added valuable strength to its depleted ranks, and it looked towards becoming the largest party after the election. At a heady announcement meeting it was indicated that the Social Action Party would also shortly join Chart Thai. It was with confidence then, that on 24 July, the Party revealed that it would field over 200 candidates including 75 former MPs, and expected to win at least 135 seats.