Brazilian Hairdresser's Photo at Center of Rahul Gandhi's Election Fraud Allegations in India

New Delhi:

The 'Brazilian model' whose image became viral following Rahul Gandhi's allegations about the Haryana election is actually a hairdresser named Larissa Nery. The photo was taken approximately eight years ago when she was around 20 years old, and she had no knowledge it would become the center of a major political controversy across the globe.

A video featuring Larissa has now gone viral where she explains that the photograph Mr. Gandhi shared during his press conference was captured years ago when she was much younger.

"They are using an old photo of mine. It's an old photo, okay? I was like 18 or 20 years old. I don't know if it's an election or something about voting... And in India. They're portraying me as Indian to scam people. What madness! What craziness is this? What world do we live in?" Larissa states in the video.

She mentioned that media outlets have been attempting to contact her since her photograph gained widespread attention. "A reporter called me wanting to know about this whole thing, about going to the salon, my job... wanting to talk to me for an interview, I didn't answer. The guy found me on Instagram, called me on Instagram. Now, another person who has nothing to do with the matter, a friend of mine from across the city, sends me a photo. You won't believe it," she explains in Portuguese.

In her recent Instagram status, Larissa humorously posted, "Wow, that's crazy! I'm Famous in India as the 'mysterious Brazilian Model'!"

The photograph, titled 'woman wearing blue denim jacket', is freely available on stock photography platforms like Unsplash and Pexels. While Larissa isn't identified on these sites, the photographer is Matheus Ferrero from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The image has been downloaded over 400,000 times from these two websites alone.

Brazilian news agency Aos Fatos contacted Larissa, who clarified that she isn't a professional model but had posed for the photograph to help a friend. Photographer Matheus Ferrero requested permission to share the image online, which she granted. Since then, her image has appeared in thousands of publications as a stock photo.

Aos Fatos also interviewed photographer Matheus Ferrero, who revealed he had to delete his Instagram account after millions of social media users began searching for him following Gandhi's allegations. Many people mistakenly thought Matheus Ferrero was the model's name. "They literally hacked all my accounts. There were a lot of strange people saying all sorts of things," he stated. According to Ferrero, people may not have realized it was a photo downloaded from a free platform.

Larissa's photograph went viral after Rahul Gandhi made fresh allegations of electoral fraud. He claimed that the Election Commission facilitated voting irregularities in the Haryana election last year. During his press conference, Gandhi alleged that the photograph of a Brazilian woman appears 22 times in the voter list for Haryana's Rai Assembly constituency.

When someone pointed out that she didn't appear to be from Haryana, Gandhi responded, "But she votes 22 times in Haryana, and she votes in 10 different booths in Haryana, and she has got multiple names: Seema, Sweety, Saraswati, Rashmi, Vimla. This is a centralized operation. Somebody fed this lady into the electoral list at a centralized level, not at the booth level."

Displaying additional instances of voter IDs with identical pictures but different names, Gandhi stated, "The Election Commission can remove duplicates in a second. Why don't they do it? Reason: they are helping the BJP."

"I am questioning the Election Commission and the democratic process in India, and I am doing this with 100 per cent proof. We are sure that a plan was put in motion to convert Congress's landslide victory into a loss," he declared.

Sources within the Election Commission questioned what polling agents of the Congress were doing on voting day. "They are supposed to object if the elector has already voted or if they doubt the identity of the elector," a source said. The source also asked if Rahul Gandhi supports the Special Intensive Revision aimed at removing duplication from voter lists and eliminating names of deceased individuals or those who have relocated from a particular constituency.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju criticized Rahul Gandhi for discussing "fake issues." "Polling is happening in Bihar, yet he's telling stories about Haryana. There's nothing left in Bihar, so he's shifting the narrative to Haryana." The Leader of the Opposition, he said, should address serious matters.

"They say they were winning in exit polls and opinion polls. But there's always a difference between poll predictions and actual results. This keeps happening - it's nothing new. We never made any allegations against the Election Commission," he added.