Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s claim of “vote chori” in Haryana on Wednesday took an unexpected turn to Brazil. The Leader of Opposition showed a photo of a woman he claimed was a Brazilian model and said it was “used 22 times” in Haryana’s voter rolls, under names like Seema, Sweety and Saraswati.
Rahul Gandhi’s mention of the Brazilian model prompted massive search about her on the internet.
“Who is this lady? What is her name? Where does she come from? But she votes 22 times in Haryana, at 10 different booths, and has multiple names,” the Congress leader asked in the presser titled ‘H Files’ on Thursday.
At the presser, Gandhi said the image was “proof” of large-scale electoral fraud that, according to him, cost Congress victory in the 2024 Haryana assembly election.
Calling it part of a “centralised operation” to manipulate results, the Congress leader said the photo appeared multiple times in the voter lists of the Rai assembly constituency.
Rahul Gandhi also mentioned that the same image could be traced online to “Matheus Ferrero”.
An independent Google search, shows that Ferrero is a Brazilian photographer whose work, including portraits and fashion images, can be easily found on Unsplash.
The Brazilian model’s shocked reaction
But hours later, a woman claiming to be the one whose picture was used, appeared online in a video reacting to the situation. She claimed that the picture being shown in Gandhi’s presser is of her when she was “about 20-years-old.”
A reverse image search identified the woman in the clip as Larissa Nery. She later reposted screenshots showing her video being circulated on ‘X’ to her Instagram story.
Though the woman was speaking in Portuguese, an AI-generated translation of her remarks in the clip suggested that she appeared shocked as she reacted to reports of her name being misused in the alleged scam.
She jokingly said, “Folks, let me tell you the gossip. You’re laughing too much, aren’t you? I’m going to tell the gossip. Folks, they are using an old photo of mine. My photo is old, okay? Look, I was very young in the photo. [I must have been] about 20 years old, 18 years old.”
“They are using a photo of mine to run, I don’t know if it’s an election, something where you have to vote. And in India, they are portraying me as an Indian woman to scam others, folks.”
‘What madness is this?’
Clearly stunned by the attention, Larissa added that reporters had started calling her after the controversy surfaced. “Oh my god, how crazy. What madness is this, what world are we living in,” she said, adding that a journalist had even contacted the salon where she works.
“Then a reporter called me wanting to know about this thing. [He] called the salon where I work, wanting to talk to me for an interview. So I didn’t answer… The guy found my Instagram, called me on Instagram,” she added.
Larissa said she had been flooded with messages and even received the viral image from a friend in another city.
According to online searches, Larissa’s photo is one of many portraits clicked by Brazilian photographer Matheus Ferrero. Screenshots of her video and reactions have since gone viral.
