A star campaigner for India’s Hindu nationalist ruling party has been banned from the election trail for 72 hours over hate speech targeting Muslims, one of four candidates to receive suspensions on Monday as the country’s election season turned acrimonious.

A cabinet minister, a high-profile candidate and a regional leader from a party representing Dalits, the “lowest” caste of Hindus, were also banned from campaigning on Monday for breaching election-time rules against making provocative comments about caste or religion.

Quick guide India's election Show Hide Up to 900m Indians will vote over the next six weeks in a democratic contest that dwarfs any other. More than 11m polling officials and security personnel are involved, and for security reasons, the contest is broken down into seven phases, which allows teams of federal police — who are considered more impartial than their local counterparts — to monitor each one of the country’s 800,000 polling stations. Indian law requires that no voter should have to travel more than 2km to cast their ballot. In several famous examples, teams of voting officials and police are dispatched to remote areas to set up booths so that a single registered resident can vote. Voting machines are shuttled across the country by road in the country’s hinterland, boat in places such as the Andaman and Nicobar islands, through snow in the Himalayas, by camel in the desert of Rajastan and elephant in the Assamese jungle. Votes will be counted throughout the day on 23 May with results released at the same time, so we should know by end of day the makeup of parliament - although several days of squabbling over a coalition government could ensue if nobody has won a majority.Up to 900m Indians will vote over the next six weeks in a democratic contest that dwarfs any other. More than 11m polling officials and security personnel are involved, and for security reasons, the contest is broken down into seven phases, which allows teams of federal police — who are considered more impartial than their local counterparts — to monitor each one of the country’s 800,000 polling stations. Indian law requires that no voter should have to travel more than 2km to cast their ballot. In several famous examples, teams of voting officials and police are dispatched to remote areas to set up booths so that a single registered resident can vote. Voting machines are shuttled across the country by road in the country’s hinterland, boat in places such as the Andaman and Nicobar islands, through snow in the Himalayas, by camel in the desert of Rajastan and elephant in the Assamese jungle. Votes will be counted throughout the day on 23 May with results released at the same time, so we should know by end of day the makeup of parliament - although several days of squabbling over a coalition government could ensue if nobody has won a majority.

India’s election commission, which manages the polls and is considered one of the country’s most upstanding institutions, had received strong criticism for not acting to curb the rhetoric being traded by candidates in recent days.

Yogi Adityanath, an ordained Hindu monk and the chief minister of India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, told a crowd last week that if the Bharatiya Janata party’s (BJP) opponents had “faith in Ali [the son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad], we have faith in [the Hindu god] Bajrang Bali”.

After the election regulator flagged the remarks, Adityanath said they were in retaliation to those of the Dalit leader Mayawati, who in a speech days earlier had urged “especially Muslims” not to split their anti-BJP votes.

What's at stake as India's 900m voters head for the polls? Read more

The election commission ruled on Monday that both leaders had made comments that could “aggravate existing difference or create mutual hatred between religious communities”, and temporarily banned them from the election trail from 6am on Tuesday (local time).

It banned two more leaders on Monday evening. A candidate from the regional Samajwadi party, Azam Khan, had caused an outcry by saying his female BJP opponent wore “khaki underwear”, a suggestion she was downplaying her Hindu nationalist beliefs. The uniform of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, India’s largest Hindu nationalist group, includes khaki shorts or trousers.

The commission banned him from the campaign trail for 72 hours, calling his comments “not only indecent but also derogatory and totally uncalled for”.

A cabinet minister, Maneka Gandhi, was also banned for two days after video emerged showing her telling Muslim voters in her electorate that if she won office without their votes, “then when a Muslim comes to me for work, I will think, let it be, how does it matter?” Gandhi said the comments were taken out of context.

Indian law bans political candidates from appealing to voters based on egregious remarks about religion or the caste system. But in practice, these social categories are still defining faultlines in Indian life and are frequently referenced in political speeches.

The six-week election season that started last week has been rife with incendiary religious appeals, particularly from the BJP, whose overarching political goal is to forge a cohesive political identity out of the country’s extraordinarily diverse community of about 1 billion Hindus.

Adityanath, who spent time in jail in 2007 on charges of fomenting anti-Muslim riots, had already received a warning from the authorities for referring to India’s armed forces as “Modi’s army”, in breach of guidelines against casting political aspersions on the institution.

On Thursday, the BJP president, Amit Shah, told supporters at a rally in Assam state that if re-elected the party would rid India of unauthorised migrants – except for Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs. The government is proposing a bill to fast-track asylum requests for refugees who follow those three religions, but not for Muslims.

BJP (@BJP4India) We will ensure implementation of NRC in the entire country. We will remove every single infiltrator from the country, except Buddha, Hindus and Sikhs: Shri @AmitShah #NaMoForNewIndia

Shah also referred to unauthorised migrants from Bangladesh as “termites”, language he had used in another speech in September, and which was highlighted by the US state department in its annual human rights review.

India’s supreme court said on Monday it would examine whether election authorities had enough power to clamp down on hate speech.