Political culture often outlives political power. Comment with reference to recent State-level transitions in India.

Political culture — the shared attitudes, habits and informal rules through which power is actually exercised — is embedded in society, whereas political power changes with every verdict. Recent State-level transitions suggest that the ballot replaces rulers far faster than it replaces the culture they leave behind.

Evidence of continuity after a decisive transition

• West Bengal, 2026: the BJP won 207 of 294 seats, ending fifteen years of Trinamool rule [2] — a mandate built on anger against extortion, strongman politics, unemployment and youth out-migration [1].
• Yet roughly a hundred days on, control of rent-yielding local networks — auto and e-rickshaw stands, local syndicates — reportedly passed to new claimants instead of being dismantled [1].
• The personnel changed; the practice of informal, extra-legal local authority survived.

Why culture outlives power

• Defection as a carrier: leaders formed inside the old system carry its methods across. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari himself moved from the Trinamool to the BJP in 2020 [1]. The Tenth Schedule penalises switching party membership, not importing political method [3].
• Continuity of incentives: campaign finance, local dispute settlement and welfare access still flow through intermediaries, so new incumbents inherit their usefulness.
• Contested absorption: the reported three-way tension between the RSS, State president Samik Bhattacharya and the Chief Minister is essentially over whether to absorb or refuse these inherited networks [1].

But culture is not immutable

• It shifts when institutions change incentives — the Second ARC's Ethics in Governance report urged decriminalisation of politics, transparency and stronger accountability machinery [4] — and where local self-government functions transparently.

Thus a transition of power is necessary but insufficient; the deeper contest is over political habit. Governments that institutionalise their mandate — through clean local governance, transparent contracting and empowered panchayat and municipal bodies — convert an anti-incumbency verdict into genuine renewal, honouring the Constitution's promise of impartial, accountable governance.