Brazilian Photographer Forced to Delete Instagram Account Following Rahul Gandhi's Voter Fraud Allegations in India

The Brazilian woman, Larissa Nery, has confirmed her photo was shared online with her permission.

New Delhi:

A Brazilian photographer found himself thrust into an unexpected social media storm after Rahul Gandhi used one of his photographs during allegations of vote fraud in the Haryana elections. The photographer, Matheus Ferrero, based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, has been forced to delete his Instagram account due to the sudden influx of attention.

The photograph in question was taken in 2017 and shows a woman wearing a blue denim jacket. With the subject's permission, Ferrero uploaded the image to stock photography websites including Unsplash and Pexels, where it has been downloaded more than 400,000 times. Yesterday, the image became central to Gandhi's accusations against the Election Commission, triggering a massive social media response.

In an interview with Brazilian news agency Aos Fatos, Ferrero described the chaotic aftermath: "They literally hacked all my accounts. There were a lot of strange people saying all sorts of things." He suggested that many people failed to understand that the image was simply downloaded from a free stock photo platform.

The woman in the photograph, Larissa Nery, also spoke to Aos Fatos, explaining that she is not a professional model and had posed for the photograph as a favor to Ferrero, who had requested and received her permission to share the image online.

A video of Nery addressing the situation has since gone viral. In it, she clarifies: "Guys, 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. Ah! They're portraying me as Indian to scam people, guys. What madness! What craziness is this? What world do we live in?"

The controversy stems from Gandhi's recent allegations of electoral fraud. During a press conference, he claimed that the photograph of this Brazilian woman appears 22 times in the voter list for Haryana's Rai Assembly seat, each time with different Indian names such as Seema, Sweety, Saraswati, Rashmi, and Vimla.

When questioned about the woman clearly not appearing 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. This is a centralised operation. Somebody fed this lady into the electoral list at a centralised level, not at the booth level."

Gandhi presented additional examples of voter IDs featuring identical photographs but different names, asserting: "The Election Commission can remove duplicates in a second. Why don't they do it? Reason: they are helping the BJP."

He further stated: "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."

Sources within the Election Commission have responded by questioning the role of Congress polling agents during the election. "They are supposed to object if the elector has already voted or if they doubt the identity of the elector," one source noted. They also questioned whether Gandhi supports the Special Intensive Revision process designed to eliminate duplications from voter lists.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju dismissed Gandhi's allegations as "fake issues," saying, "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." He added that the Opposition Leader should focus on serious matters.

Rijiju also pointed out that discrepancies between poll predictions and actual results are common: "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."