Kriang Kalptinan

Kriang Kalptinan was born Kriangsak Sae-Ung on 27 November 1952 in the Ban Du community of Nai Mueang subdistrict, Mueang Ubon Ratchathani district, in Ubon Ratchathani province in northeastern Thailand. He was known by the nickname Biao.

He earned a bachelor's degree in community development from the faculty of liberal arts of what is now Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University, followed by a master's degree in educational administration from the same institution. He later took a master's degree in public administration at Chalermkarnchana College. Before and alongside politics he worked in business.

Kriang was first elected to the House of Representatives for Ubon Ratchathani in the 1995 general election as a member of the Democrat Party. His victory over Chaisiri Ruangkanchanaset, then regarded as the most powerful political boss of the lower northeast, made his name. In 1996 he was re-elected for the New Aspiration Party, and he moved to Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai Rak Thai, winning again in 2001 and 2005. He was awarded the Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of the Crown of Thailand in 2001 and of the Order of the White Elephant in 2004.

In 2007 the Constitutional Court dissolved Thai Rak Thai and banned 111 of its executives from politics for five years. Kriang was one of them. He came back in 2012 as a deputy leader of Pheu Thai and stood as number 42 on its party list in the 2014 election.

After the 2014 military coup he was among the Ubon Ratchathani political figures summoned by the regional army command in May 2016 to discuss its policy on local influential figures. In 2018 he briefly joined the Thai Raksa Chart Party, resigning on 23 November 2018 and rejoining Pheu Thai the next day. He was number ten on Pheu Thai's list in 2019 but was not seated under the allocation rules, and he was elected a deputy leader of the party again in 2020.

In the 2023 general election he was elected as number six on the Pheu Thai list. On 1 September 2023 he was appointed Deputy Minister of the Interior in the government of Srettha Thavisin, where the minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, gave him responsibility for the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, as well as the Marketing Organization and the Wastewater Management Authority. He served until 3 September 2024. His term as a member of parliament ended in December 2025.

Kriang was first married to Wasana Wamsing, and they divorced. Their son, Worasit Kalptinan, succeeded him as a member of parliament for Ubon Ratchathani and became an executive of Pheu Thai. With his second wife, Rotjana Kalptinan, a former mayor of Ubon Ratchathani city, he had a son, Apisit, and a daughter who died before him.

The Kalptinan family became one of the dominant political families of Ubon Ratchathani. His younger brother, Kan Kalptinan, led the Ubon Ratchathani Provincial Administrative Organization, and Worasit's wife, Pittaya Chaisongkhram, became mayor of Ubon Ratchathani city.

Kriang Kalptinan died peacefully at Vichaiyut Hospital in the Phaya Thai district of Bangkok at 10.35 on 11 August 2026, aged 73. His son Worasit announced the time of his death, and his daughter-in-law Pittaya Chaisongkhram shared the news on social media. The family did not announce a cause of death; Thairath reported that he was believed to have died of an illness.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who had been his minister at the Interior Ministry, said he was saddened by the news and remembered him as a lovely person. His body was taken to Ubon Ratchathani on 12 August, and King Vajiralongkorn granted royal patronage for the funeral rites held from 13 to 15 August. On the evening of 14 August Anutin presided over a chanting ceremony that was attended by the former prime ministers Thaksin Shinawatra, Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Somchai Wongsawat, along with many ministers and members of parliament. Thai PBS noted that it was the first meeting between Thaksin and Anutin since Thaksin's release.

Kriang is remembered as one of the key figures who secured the lower northeast for Thaksin Shinawatra's movement, from Thai Rak Thai through to Pheu Thai, and who stayed loyal to it through both its years in power and its periods of crisis. Thai PBS described him as a political heavyweight of the party in the region, and observers suggested that his death could affect Pheu Thai's hold on Ubon Ratchathani, while noting that his family remained strong in local government.