Police in the Aurangabad district in Bihar state, on the border with Nepal, found the bomb in a field, cordoned off the area and sent for a bomb disposal unit.

However, the bomb exploded the next day before disposal experts arrived. The blast killed seven people close to the cordon and injured 18 another people. Another person later died in hospital from injuries, police said.

Authorities blamed Maoist rebels for the bomb but no organization has claimed responsibility, police said.

The deaths took place just after polls closed for state elections and are the latest fatalities in the long struggle between federal and state security forces, including local police and a simmering rebellion lead by Maoists.

The Maoists, often are called Naxalites after the village Naxal in West Bengal state where they were formed in the 1960s, had called on the local population to boycott the election.

The governing Janata Dal-United party and its allies Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal are expected to retain their majority in the state assembly but counting of votes is expected to go on until Wednesday.

More than 50 percent of the 6 million eligible voters in the sixth, and last, phase of polling across the state took place, despite threats from Maoists, the state electoral commission said. Local media reported only a few minor incidents.

An alarming surge last year to more than 1,130 deaths attributed to Maoist bombs and retaliation against the local population prompted the federal government to launch Operation Green Hunt in late 2009.

The goal of the two-year security operation is to regain the mostly rural territory lost to the insurgents. Around 50,000 federal paramilitary troops and tens of thousands of civilians have been drafted in for the operation.

Green Hunt relies on security forces being stationed in so-called Naxal-infested areas where they can attempt to win the hearts and minds of the poor, who are often attracted to Naxalite promises of a better life.

More than 200 security forces personnel have been killed this year and police often are targets for hostage taking throughout the "red corridor," the name that security forces use to describe the states in which operation Green Hunt is taking place. The corridor, along India's eastern side, includes the states of Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

These areas have India's greatest illiteracy, poverty and overpopulation. But they also have some of the country's richest environmental resources, including minerals and forestry.

A report last year by Forbes India said the state of Orissa alone has 60 percent of India's bauxite reserves, 25 percent of coal, 28 percent of iron ore, 92 percent of nickel and 28 percent of manganese reserves.

The Maoists demand that more of the wealth from the region's natural resources, especially from new mining projects, be spread among the mainly rural poor.

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