Chandigarh: The Indian National Lok Dal, a party founded by former deputy prime minister Devi Lal, split in 2018 after a bitter power struggle between his two grandsons. The year also saw a series of horrific rape cases, long strikes by roadways and sanitation workers, and sportspersons making Haryana proud.
Opposition politicians conducted state-wide yatras' to keep up their attack on the Manohar Lal Khattar government over issues like law and order, farmers' problems and power supply.
INLD's Abhay Chautala, who is Leader of Opposition in Haryana Assembly, led a 'jail bharo' agitation and the 'Jan Adhikar Yatra', focusing on the unfinished Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal.
The long-pending water-sharing project, opposed by neighbouring Punjab, was in the works even when his grandfather was chief minister, heading a Lok Dal government in the 1980s.
For the Congress, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda led the Jan Kranti Yatra', spread over seven phases in different parts of the state, berating the BJP government over unfulfilled promises .
"The BJP made tall promises to the people, but failed to fulfil them. People will vote them out in the 2019 Lok Sabha and assembly elections," he said at one meeting.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal leader has also made known that his party would field candidates in Haryana in that election.
At his rallies, Kejriwal targeted the Khattar government over the "pathetic" state of government schools and health centres, and pitched the AAP as an alternative.
Undeterred, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar also held roadshows across the state, promising development, a corruption-free government and an assurance to fill up what he calls the potholes dug by previous Congress government".
But the biggest political spectacle in the state this year was the feud in the INLD -- which finally split between Ajay Chautala and Abhay Chautala, the two sons of party president Om Prakash Chautala.
The feud saw Ajay Chautala and his sons Dushyant and Digvijay being expelled from the Haryana-based party by the senior Chautala, who threw his weight behind the younger son Abhay Chautala.