India, Nov. 26 -- The "2.5-year formula" at the heart of the Congress government's leadership crisis in Karnataka has never officially been confirmed by the party's "high command", but it remains a regular feature in its feuds.

It's something the party encountered at least twice recently, in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, both states where it lost power in the elections that followed. The formula essentially means a half-and-half deal between a veteran leader and a younger successor for the CM's post. Claimants and their supporters have, openly and off the record, spoken of it.

Formula or not, similar feuds over generational shifts apparently hurt the party's prospects in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh too over the past decade.

In the latest, ...