India, Nov. 14 -- WASHINGTON - Ten days after Democrats won what history will record as one of the most decisive midterm victories in a generation, the party is embroiled in an internal leadership battle that is testing whether the blue wave of 3 November was a mandate for the people who led the party to victory - or a mandate to change them.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has no challenger standing between him and his bid to become House speaker after the November 3 midterm elections in which Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, but growing opposition inside the party is raising questions about how long that will last.

"It is inevitable for Jeffries to have a challenger," John Geer, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt pro...