Crazy guys... I’m famous in India! — Brazilian 'model' caught in Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote theft’ row speaks out

Dubai: A Brazilian influencer and hairdresser has been thrust into the middle of a political storm in India after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi used her old photograph while alleging large-scale voter fraud in the Haryana election.

The woman, Larissa Nery, who was referred to as a 'model' said she was shocked to see her image flash across Indian television screens during Gandhi’s press conference, where he claimed that the same woman’s photograph appeared 22 times in the voter list for the Rai Assembly seat under different names.

“Guys, they are using an old photo of mine,” Larissa said in a video that has gone viral in India and Brazil. “It’s an old photo, okay? I was like 18 or 20 years old. I don’t even 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?”

In her Instagram story, she added humorously: “Wow, that’s crazy! I’m famous in India as the ‘mysterious Brazilian model’!”

The photo that sparked a political firestorm

The picture in question — titled “woman wearing blue denim jacket” — is a free stock image available on websites such as Unsplash and Pexels. It was shot nearly eight years ago by Brazilian photographer Matheus Ferrero in Belo Horizonte and has been downloaded over 400,000 times worldwide.

Nery told Brazilian news outlet Aos Fatos that she posed for the photograph to help a friend build a portfolio and had no idea it would resurface years later in a political controversy.

“People may not have understood that it was a free-use stock photo,” Ferrero said, adding that he had to delete his social media accounts after being flooded with messages from India.

Rahul Gandhi’s allegations

At a press conference on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi accused the Election Commission of allowing massive manipulation of voter lists. Holding up the photo, he alleged that the woman’s image appeared repeatedly under different names:

“She votes 22 times in Haryana, in 10 different booths, with names like Seema, Sweety, Saraswati, Rashmi, Vimla. This is a centralised operation, not a booth-level one,” Gandhi said.

He alleged that the poll panel’s inaction was helping the BJP and claimed that the Congress’s “landslide victory was converted into a loss” through voter fraud.

Election commission and BJP react

Sources in the Election Commission questioned why Congress polling agents did not object if they noticed duplicate voters on election day. “They are supposed to challenge an elector’s identity if there’s any doubt,” one official told NDTV.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju dismissed the allegations as “fake issues”, saying Gandhi was trying to “divert attention” from the Bihar election. “There’s always a difference between poll predictions and actual results. This keeps happening — it’s nothing new,” Rijiju said.

‘What a mess I’m living in’

In a separate video in Portuguese, Nery expressed disbelief at how a casual photograph had led to media calls and interview requests.

“A reporter called my workplace asking for an interview. He found me on Instagram! Now friends are sending me screenshots of Indian news channels. What a mess I’m living in,” she said.

From an innocent photoshoot in Belo Horizonte to the heart of a political controversy in India, Larissa Nery’s face has travelled far — and unintentionally become the face of a debate on voter list integrity and digital misinformation.