The ‘Brazilian model’ whose face went viral after Congress Leader and LoP Rahul Gandhi’s fresh allegations regarding the Haryana election is actually a hairdresser who posed for a photo eight years back, unaware that it would travel across the world and become the epicentre of a massive row.
A video of the woman, identified as Larissa Nery, has now gone viral now. She is seen clarifying that the photograph Gandhi shared during a press conference yesterday was clicked years back, when she was about 20 years old.
During his press conference, Rahul Gandhi sought to accuse the BJP of large-scale voter manipulation in Haryana’s 2024 Assembly elections. To support his claim, Gandhi displayed a photo of a woman, asserting that her image appeared on multiple voter IDs across several polling booths. “Who is this lady?” he asked dramatically, alleging that the same face was used on 22 voter cards across at least 10 polling stations.
Within hours, the image went viral on Indian social media platforms, with users quickly tracing the woman’s identity to her verified online profiles. What followed was an outpouring of ridicule and disbelief directed at the Congress leader, as netizens questioned how such an elementary mistake could pass through the party’s research and media team.
Larissa Speaks Out: “What Madness Is This?”
After learning that her old photo had been shown in an Indian political press conference, Larissa took to her social media platform to react. In a short video clip translated from Portuguese she said, “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?”
Her stunned reaction added a global dimension to what was otherwise a local political controversy. The incident sparked debate, with several online users highlighting how irresponsible it was for a senior Indian leader to showcase unverified images in a press conference aimed at discrediting the Election Commission.
Rather than proving voter fraud, Rahul Gandhi’s claim exposed the Congress party’s casual approach to facts and evidence. The blunder effectively turned a serious accusation of electoral malpractice into a subject of global mockery.
To make matters worse for Rahul Gandhi, CNN-News18 later tracked down one of the Indian women whose voter IDs had been linked to the Brazilian model’s image. The woman, identified as Pinky Juginder Kaushik, clarified that there was no voter fraud only a clerical mismatch in the voter database. “Yes, I went to cast my vote myself at the village school. The names are the same, but there was a mistake with the photo they used someone else’s picture. Nevertheless, I did vote. No one pressured me to vote. I showed my slip and then cast my vote,” she told the channel.
This statement debunked the Congress leader’s central allegation of “vote chori.” The so-called evidence Rahul Gandhi showcased turned out to be nothing more than a routine administrative error, which could easily have been verified before making sensational accusations against the BJP and the Election Commission.
Adding to the embarrassment, The Indian Express conducted its own field investigation into Rahul Gandhi’s claims and found them baseless. One of Gandhi’s examples included a property in Hodal, Haryana, allegedly showing 501 registered voters under a single house number. Upon verification, the newspaper found it was a large ancestral property housing four generations of an extended family all legitimately registered under the same address. The Congress leader’s claim of manipulation, therefore, collapsed under basic scrutiny.
Rahul Gandhi’s failed “vote chori” expose is only the latest in a long series of factually incorrect and theatrically presented allegations. Instead of focusing on real issues or constructive opposition, Gandhi continues to chase sensationalism, relying on half-verified social media clips to attack institutions. This time, however, his recklessness has crossed borders dragging a foreign national into India’s political battlefield.
The episode reveals the Congress party’s chronic lack of preparation, discipline, and respect for facts. The use of an unrelated person’s photograph in an official press conference not only damages India’s political credibility but also reflects the intellectual bankruptcy of a party that was once in power for decades. By making unfounded charges against the Election Commission Rahul Gandhi has once again shown his disregard for truth and responsibility.
This blunder will likely haunt the Congress for some time, especially as social media continues to amplify Larissa’s stunned reaction and global ridicule mounts.
Instead of exposing voter fraud, Rahul Gandhi has exposed his own party’s incompetence. What was intended to be a grand revelation turned into an embarrassing episode that mocked India’s opposition politics before the world. While the Election Commission has dismissed his allegations and the voters involved have clarified the clerical nature of the errors, Gandhi has yet to issue a clarification for using a foreign woman’s image irresponsibly.
The entire incident proves one point when facts fail, Congress turns to fiction. Rahul Gandhi’s attempt to manufacture outrage through unverified visuals has only boomeranged, reinforcing the growing public perception that the Congress leader prioritises theatrics over truth. In trying to prove a conspiracy, he ended up proving his own carelessness and once again, India’s political discourse had to pay the price for his misplaced drama.
