West Bengal’s political behaviour cannot be fully explained through conventional Indian electoral models that prioritise party ideology, leadership charisma, or centralised organisation. Instead, Bengal operates through a distinct social and political grammar, where neighbourhood-level social units (paras) and informal authority figures play a decisive role in shaping voter behaviour. In much of urban and semi-urban Bengal, political power flows from the bottom up - from para to local authority to formal representatives, while legitimacy flows from the top down, from institutions to individuals. Political parties function as amplifiers of this structure rather than replacements for it