The palace coup against NDP leader Carole James may have succeeded in removing her from the leadership, but it has created a giant crack in the unity of the party.

It also raises serious doubts about the party's ability to govern.

Make no mistake: the 13 so-called "dissident" MLAs have inflicted enormous damage on their party and on their colleagues. While there's no question James' weak leadership was a challenge for the NDP, the method used to take her out will leave scars that run deep within a party that prides itself on embracing, among other things, giving women real political power.

The party has been trying to portray itself as the "government in waiting." This is an important image to craft, as voters have to be sure they are putting a responsible, competent bunch of people in office, with control over everything from the health-care system to environmental protection to taxes.

Instead, the internal meltdown has portrayed the party as a clownish bunch willing to bend to the will of a minority driven by self-interest rather than the greater good of the majority.

Can you imagine behaving that way in government? Would an NDP premier give in to 13 dissidents in the caucus who were upset by a policy position agreed to by the majority?

The dissidents have been described by some of their colleagues in the NDP caucus as behaving like "anarchists" and have proven impossible to deal with.

One of the dissidents, Harry Lali, has said this whole episode shows it is the end of "party discipline." Given that -- and given that his dissident colleagues appear to agree with him -- how does James' successor fare any better dealing the caucus?

Jenny Kwan's suicide-bomber approach to forcing James out of office should give everyone in the caucus who is considering becoming interim leader serious pause for concern.

What guarantee does anyone have that Kwan will not pull a similar stunt against them?

Indeed, Kwan and her colleagues' nuclear attack against James has wounded the credibility of those who backed James. The top talent of the NDP caucus (which does not include any of the dissidents, by the way) has been tainted by the anti-democratic actions of the minority.

So how does the NDP get it together from here?

Well, unless the Gang of 13 agrees to work within a caucus environment, the party has no chance of moving forward. Even if they do come back to the fold, the relations between them and their caucus colleagues have become toxic.

One reason for the visceral relations is that a male-dominated minority has forced a woman leader, who was supported by the majority, from office. Nine of the 13 dissidents are male.

You can imagine the anger over this development that is now seething in certain quarters of the NDP, which was supposed to be a champion of feminist causes.

To be sure, James' leadership was dogged by questions about her ability to lead and her ability to win. But none of her detractors could point to any current evidence that there was no way she could win the next election.

Poll after poll has the NDP well ahead of the B.C. Liberals. While James has long had trouble with her approval ratings, so did Gordon Campbell while he was winning three elections.

In the end, this was all about a faction of the NDP unwilling to give up control of the party and resisting James' attempts to modernize it and move it more to the political centre.

The shame of this is that it may well cost the NDP the next election. There is no doubt that many people out there who do not want to give the B.C. Liberals a fourth term are now forced to look in despair at an alternative that is broken and, for now anyways, somewhat discredited.

James may well have won the next election, as the centre-right coalition of the B.C. Liberals is showing its own signs of cracking. But now we'll never know for sure.

The NDP now has to go through a potentially agonizing leadership race of its own.

How's this for a scenario: the next B.C. Liberal leader calls a snap election in March, catching the NDP either leaderless or engulfed with bitter internal strife.

If the NDP loses the next vote, the party can look back at the minority-led coup that took out its first female leader as it searches for the reason for the loss.

KBaldrey@globaltv.com

Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global BC.