The killing of 27 security personnel and seven civilians in the opening round has already made phase 1 of the general election one of the bloodiest ever starts to an election in recent times. Questions are now being raised over the wisdom of scheduling polls in almost the entire Naxal-affected areas in the first phase.

Sources say that while deciding on the schedule of polls, there was considerable debate on whether it would be possible to hold peaceful elections in the entire Naxal belt simultaneously, especially since north-eastern states and parts of Jammu and Kashmir were also being clubbed in the same phase.

It was pointed out that from the security point of view, it was a nightmarish situation, particularly so when intelligence agencies had been repeatedly reporting that Naxalite groups were planning to strike in a big way to disrupt the election process.

The Election Commission, however, was said to be in favour of conducting elections in these areas at one go considering the fact that they are geographically contiguous, which would have helped in logistical planning.

The decision resulted in the number of central security forces in these areas being considerably lower than what was necessary to keep the Naxalites in check. For example, during last year?s assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, which was held in two phases, 300 companies of para-military forces had been deployed in the state, apart from the 80 that are permanently stationed to fight the Naxalites. This time, only 85 companies could be made available for the entire state, which went to polls in a single phase.

The story was repeated in Jharkhand and Bihar, both of which received a significantly lesser number of central forces than what was needed or what was made available to them during the previous round of elections.

Already 20 jawans of the CRPF and seven of the BSF have been killed in election violence. Five members of a polling party and two civilians, the driver and conductor of a BSF bus that was blown up by a landmine, have also been killed.

Never before have so many security personnel died during a single election. In the 2004 general election for example, the security forces had lost 18 men, four of whom had died due to illness and one in a road accident, during the entire exercise. In the last round of assembly elections in November during which five states had gone to polls, only one CRPF jawan was killed in Chhattisgarh.

With four rounds of polling still to go, the casualty figures are likely to go up. According to experts, the best course of action would have been to go for a multi-phase election in the Naxal areas, like it is being done in J&K which is scheduled to vote in all the five phases. In a state like Chhattisgarh, a two-phase election, for example, would have meant the 85 companies would have been deployed in only half of the state. These same companies could then have been moved to the other half in the next phase. It would have been less stressful for the security forces as well because after being already overstretched in the first phase, they would now be sent to some other corner of the country.

Securitymen killed in polls

• 2004 LS polls: 18 ? BSF 8 (4 because of illness, 1 in accident, 2 in IED blast in Haryana, 1 in firing in UP), CRPF 10 (9 in Jharkhand, 1 in Maharashtra)

• 2008 assembly polls in 5 states: 1 ? One CRPF personnel in Chhattisgarh

• 2009 LS polls, Phase 1: 27 ? BSF 7 in Jharkhand, CRPF 7 in Jharkhand and 13 in Chhattisgarh