Election watch

The Election Commission on Friday announced Assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra will be held on October 15. Counting will be on October 19. Poll dates for Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhand will be announced later. Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath said the poll panel was watching the flood situation in J&K "very closely" and a decision on poll dates in the state will be taken once normalcy returns. By-election to the Beed Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant after the death of BJP leader Gopinath Munde, will be held on October 15. By-polls for six Assembly seats across six states will also be held on the same day. These are Kanubari (ST) in Arunachal Pradesh, Hiyanglam in Manipur, Northern Angami II (ST) in Nagaland, Kairana in Uttar Pradesh, Rajkot (West) in Gujarat and Kandhamal in Odisha.