Follow the money: Why parties are at pains to deny states to rivals

Why is it so important to capture state governments though you did not get the voter’s mandate? One answer could be that it helps to have control of the state administration for whenever the next elections are held. Police and other officials can be transferred as required to facilitate the ruling party’s campaigning, made to look the other way when skulduggery is on (like moving voters’ bribe money into a constituency), or deployed to engineer the support of local influencers and toughs.
 
There is a less obvious possibility: Much of the money that can be milked from the government