That is the predicament facing the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party in West Bengal, a state of more than 100 million people in eastern India.
Barely a month after being voted out of office, the party is facing a rebellion by most of its legislators, a potential split among its MPs and growing doubts about the authority of its founder, Mamata Banerjee.
In 2011 the firebrand politician achieved what many thought impossible, ending 34 uninterrupted years of Communist rule in West Bengal and dismantling one of the world's longest-serving elected left-wing governments.
Time magazine later named her among the world's 100 most influential people.
She would go on to govern for 15 years, turning the TMC into India's most successful regional party and herself into one of the country's most formidable opposition politicians.
Which is what makes the events of the past month so startling.
Last month Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in West Bengal, ending the TMC's 15-year rule amid a potent mix of anti-incumbency, religious polarisation and controversy surrounding the electoral rolls.
It still won 26 million votes, only about three million fewer than the BJP, and retained roughly 40% of the popular vote.
It remains a substantial political force, with 80 legislators in the state assembly and 28 members of parliament.
By any conventional measure, it should be regrouping after defeat.
Within weeks of the election, roughly three-quarters of the TMC's legislators revolted against both Banerjee and her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, widely seen as her heir.
The rebels seized control of the party's legislative wing, installed their own opposition leader and accused the leadership of forging signatures on legislative documents.
