The general election resumes on Tuesday after a 10-day gap in a political atmosphere heated up by allegations of disinformation, doctored videos and sex crimes as well as a tug-of-war over turnout figures.

Ninety-three seats in 10 states and one Union Territory will go to the polls in the third phase. These include Betul in Madhya Pradesh where polling had been postponed
because of the BSP candidate’s death.

These, however, do not include Surat in Gujarat, or Anantnag-Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir, which were supposed to vote in this phase.

The BJP candidate was elected unopposed in Surat after the nominations of the Congress’s candidate and backup were rejected and the others mysteriously withdrew their nominations.

Voting in Anantnag-Rajouri has been postponed to May 25.

The postponement followed requests from local parties as well as the BJP — which isn’t contesting from the seat — that cited “logistic, communication and the natural barrier of connectivity”. The Opposition parties have slammed the move.

The third phase comes at a time when the Opposition has questioned the unusual delay in the publication of voter turnout figures for the first two phases. The Election Commission of India has released only percentages, and not the absolute numbers of votes cast.

The issue has gained significance for the Opposition with the percentage figures showing low turnouts and a nervous BJP leadership — apparently seeing the trend as a threat — ratcheting up the volume of its campaign with brazen polarising tactics.

On Monday, the Trinamool Congress asked the poll panel to publicly announce the number of voters — and votes cast — in each seat as soon as each phase is completed.

Several people linked to the Congress have been arrested for allegedly producing fake videos of BJP leaders using AI. The Congress too has complained to the Delhi police accusing the BJP of circulating doctored videos of Rahul Gandhi.

On Monday, the Election Commission issued guidelines on this to the parties. These include: “Not (to) use social media platforms to disseminate any misinformation or information which is patently false, untrue or misleading in nature and those that impersonate another person, including any information which is synthetically created or generated or modified in a manner that such information reasonably appears to be authentic or true while in actuality dishonestly or fraudulently deceive any person who receives such information.”

The third phase also comes amid allegations of sex crimes and sex videos against Karnataka MP Prajwal Revanna, candidate of BJP ally Janata Dal Secular and grandson of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda. Prajwal has left the country, apparently after the charges became public.

An FIR has reportedly been filed in Karnataka against the BJP’s national president J.P. Nadda, national IT cell head Amit Malviya, and state president B.Y. Vijayendra over an alleged caricature that suggests the Congress is transferring to Muslims the reservation benefits due to Dalit, tribal and OBC communities.