BEIJING — A deep vein of intrigue has always pulsed through the messy process of sorting out power in China’s Communist Party.

The former president, Jiang Zemin, supposedly strengthened his position in 1995 by engineering a 16-year prison term on corruption charges for the Politburo member and Beijing mayor Chen Xitong. Nearly four years ago, a prominent opponent of President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, the party secretary Chen Liangyu of Shanghai, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on graft charges.

The leadership transition that will commence this autumn was supposed to put an end to that kind of political bloodshed. But the ouster on Thursday of Bo Xilai, the Communist Party secretary of Chongqing municipality who was openly campaigning for a spot in that elite leadership, threatens to puncture the veneer of comity at a crucial time, raising concerns of unsettling conflict within the Communist Party.

Charismatic and ruthless, Mr. Bo is the rare Chinese politician who has built a base of popular support, deploying sweeping government powers to redistribute wealth among his 30 million subjects. His formidable political influence includes a network of support inherited from his father, a hero of the 1949 revolution. His admirers include leftists who want a revival of absolute government control of society. Some of his many detractors call him a neo-Maoist demagogue.