NEW DELHI: A Brazilian woman named Larissa reacted after discovering that her photograph was allegedly used multiple times in the
Haryana voter list — a claim highlighted by Congress leader
Rahul Gandhi while alleging large-scale voter fraud in the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections.
In a video reaction, model Larissa said, “Guys, I'm gonna tell you a joke — it's too horrible! They're using an old picture of me for elections in India, showing me as Indian. What a mess! A reporter even reached out to my workplace for an interview. I couldn’t believe it when a friend sent me the photo again.”
Rahul, addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters on Wednesday, unveiled what he called the 'H-Files', alleging that one in eight voters in Haryana were fake. He claimed that around 25 lakh voter records were either duplicate, non-existent, or manipulated.
During the briefing, the leader of opposition of Lok Sabha displayed a section of a voter list showing the same woman’s photograph used repeatedly under different names — including
Seema, Sweety, Saraswati, Rashmi, and
Vilma. “Who is this lady? Where does she come from?” he asked, before asserting that the woman was not Indian but a Brazilian woman whose stock photograph had been misused.
Also read:
'Who is this woman?' Rahul Gandhi says Brazilian model voted 22 times in HaryanaFact-check by Aos Fatos: Photo used in Haryana voter list was free stock imageThe Congress also posted the image on X, saying, “A Brazilian citizen, Matheus Ferroro’s photo, has been used 22 times in Haryana under different names — from Sweety to Saraswati.”
According to Brazilian fact-checking agency
Aos Fatos, the image was originally taken by photographer Matheus Ferrero, who lives in Belo Horizonte, and was first published in 2017.
The photo had been uploaded to free stock image platforms such as Unsplash and Pexels, which allow anyone to use images provided proper credit is given. As a result, the same image has appeared in numerous articles, advertisements, and websites across different countries — not just India.
After the controversy erupted, the picture was deleted from those platforms.
Aos Fatos also found that the image had been used to create fake profiles on social media. The woman’s identity was not listed on the stock platforms, but the agency confirmed — through reverse image search and by examining Ferrero’s social media — that the person is a hairdresser from Belo Horizonte who participated in a photoshoot with the photographer in March 2017.
Rahul accused Haryana of stealing 25 lakh votes:Rahul alleged that 1 in 8 voters in Haryana are fake, claiming large-scale voter fraud and pointing to unexplained differences between postal and booth votes. "We have crystal clear proof that 25 lakh voters (in Haryana) are fake, that they either don't exist or they are duplicate or are designed in a way for anybody to vote...1 in 8 voters in Haryana are fake, that's 12.5%."
Rahul claimed that a plan was set in motion to turn a predicted Congress win into a loss and also urged young voters to pay attention, citing claims backed by strong evidence. "All (exit) polls pointed to a Congress victory (in Haryana). The other thing that was surprising to us was that, for the first time in Haryana's electoral history, postal votes differed from the actual voting. This had never happened in Haryana before. So, we thought, 'Let's go into the details.' When I first saw this information, I struggled to believe it. I was in shock. I told the team to cross-check multiple times," he said.
"I want the young people, GenZ of India to understand this clearly because this is about your future...I am questioning the EC and the democratic process in India, so I am doing it with 100% proof. We are pretty sure that a plan was put in motion to convert Congress' landslide victory into a loss...Please note the smile on his face (CM Nayab Saini) and notice the 'vyavastha' that he is talking about. This is 2 days after election when everybody is saying that the Congress is sweeping the elections," he said.
Rahul's Hydrogen bomb is just a small cracker: BJPHaryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini hit back, dismissing the charges, saying, "Rahul Gandhi is doing the work of misleading the nation. The way Congress has become agenda-less, they are misleading the nation by spreading lies."
Union minister Kiren Rijiju also ridiculed Rahul's allegations and said, "Why doesn't his atom bomb ever explode? Rahul Gandhi says that the atom bomb is going to explode, but why doesn't his atom bomb ever explode? He doesn't take any subject seriously and even says that a hydrogen bomb will explode."
Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis says, "What Rahul Gandhi called a 'Hydrogen bomb' was not a bomb at all. It was just a small cracker. It had no noise or energy. Rahul Gandhi is now pursuing an agenda to not let democracy function properly. Rahul Gandhi's agenda matches the agenda of external forces. All these external forces are striving to erode faith in India's democracy and the Indian Constitution. These external forces are creating a false atmosphere and narrative that calls into question the various institutions created by the Indian Constitution. Rahul Gandhi is fueling this narrative. What could be more tragic than this? While Rahul Gandhi attempts to view our army through caste lines, I don't understand who he is working for. He raises a question mark on the army, the Constitution and the system established by the Constitution's institutions. Whose agenda is Rahul Gandhi pursuing?"
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