Does the Brazilian woman that Rahul Gandhi claimed voted 22 times in Haryana exist?

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday levelled a sensational allegation, claiming that a photograph of a Brazilian model was used 22 times in the voter rolls of Haryana’s Rai Assembly constituency, signalling what he called a “massive voter fraud” during the 2024 state elections.

Addressing a press conference, Gandhi accused the BJP of running a “planned operation” to manipulate votes and subvert the democratic process. Waving printouts of electoral rolls, he said the same woman’s photograph appeared across at least 10 polling booths, under different names like Seema, Sweety, Saraswati, Rashmi, and Vimla.

“Who is this lady? What is her name? Where does she come from? But she votes 22 times in Haryana,” Gandhi said, alleging that the Election Commission colluded with the BJP to rig the polls.

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He went on to claim that about 25 lakh entries in Haryana’s voter list were fake, describing it as a “centralised operation”. “Someone fed the photo into the electoral list at a central level, not at the booth level… She is a Brazilian model,” he added.

Gandhi also warned that the same “vote theft” tactics could be attempted in Bihar, which heads into the first phase of polling on Thursday. “They will try every bit possible to collude to ‘steal’ votes,” he said.

VIDEO | Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, addressing a press conference, says, "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: Seema, Sweety, Saraswati, Rashmi, Vilma... But turns out… pic.twitter.com/aQatIdxQNY

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) November 5, 2025

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However, one of the women whose voter IDs featured in Gandhi’s presentation denied any wrongdoing, calling it a mere “printing mistake”. She dismissed Gandhi’s “vote chori” claims as baseless, according to India Today.

But who exactly is this Brazilian woman — and how did her image end up in India’s voter rolls? Here’s a closer look at the controversy.

Who is the Brazilian woman?

During the press conference, Rahul Gandhi displayed a QR code and urged journalists to scan it to uncover “who she is and what lies behind it,” reports News18.

When scanned, the code directed users to Unsplash.com, a popular website known for hosting free-to-use stock photos, the kind of images that anyone can legally download and reuse without credit.

A quick Google search revealed that the photo in question was originally uploaded by Matheus Ferrero, a photographer based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, who regularly shares portrait and fashion photographs on platforms like Unsplash.

While the identity of the woman in the photo remains unknown, the image itself is widely accessible online. According to data on Unsplash, the picture was first uploaded on March 2, 2017, and has since been viewed over 5.9 million times and downloaded more than 4 lakh times across the world.

After Gandhi’s allegations made rounds online, the woman from the stock photo, whose name is reportedly Larissa, reacted.

“Guys, I can’t believe these people are gossiping. They’re using an old photo of mine; I was 18 or 20 in that photo. They’re portraying me as Indian to scam people. What madness! What craziness is this, what world do we live in?”

HUGE BREAKING 🚨

The Brazilian model whose photo shown in LoP Rahul Gandhi's PC has finally spoken up 🔥

“That picture is from years ago, from my youth – now they are saying I am Indian? That's absurd”
She says.#VoteChoripic.twitter.com/Vp8TNX6qX8

— Rohini Anand (@mrs_roh08) November 5, 2025

Congress leader also accused the BJP of “ensuring victory through fake votes and massive manipulation of postal ballots." He said that all exit points pointed to Congress’s victory, but it lost the state election by 22,000 votes.

“For the first time in Haryana’s history, postal ballots didn’t match the actual votes. This had never happened before. A plan was put in motion to convert Congress’ landslide victory into a loss.”

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The picture is a ‘misprint’, claims woman  

While Rahul Gandhi’s allegation focused on the repeated use of a stock image, one of the women whose voter IDs featured in his presentation has now spoken out, saying she is a legitimate voter, not part of any fraud.

According to India Today, Pinky Juginder Kaushik, a resident of Haryana, said her voter ID has carried the wrong photograph for years due to an old misprint.

“I went myself to cast my vote in 2024. There’s no vote chori here,” Pinky clarified. “When I first applied for my voter card, it came with a wrong picture — that of a woman from my village. We immediately returned it, but we still haven’t received a corrected version. I voted in this year’s election using my voter slip and Aadhaar card.”

She added, “The error must be from the BLO or the election office. How is it my fault? We had already asked for it to be fixed when it first happened.”

Meanwhile, the Election Commission dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s claims, stating that his party’s own polling agents had not raised any objections during the voting process. The commission further noted that only 22 election petitions are currently pending before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The BJP, too, hit back, accusing Gandhi of “manufacturing conspiracy theories” to divert attention from his party’s internal issues.

With input from agencies