'I've never been to India': Brazilian woman whose photo Rahul Gandhi showed in 'Haryana vote chori' claim breaks silence

Rahul claimed that 25 lakh votes were “stolen” in a state with roughly 2 crore registered voters — a figure he said translates to one in every eight votes being fake, or about 12.5 percent.

According to him, several Congress candidates had voiced concerns about discrepancies after the polls, saying that the results did not match on-ground sentiment or exit poll predictions, which had suggested a Congress victory.

Instead, the BJP emerged triumphant.

On one instance, the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition presented a photograph of a woman and said her image appeared 22 times in the voter list—under different names such as “Seema”, “Sweety”, “Saraswati” etc.

Rahul Gandhi showing photograph of the Brazilian woman in question. Photo: Rahul Gandhi/Facebook

“She votes in 10 different booths in Haryana under multiple names. This clearly shows a centralised operation,” the Congress leader claimed.

He claimed that the image belonged to a Brazilian model and that it was used in Indian electoral rolls to bolster the fake-vote allegation.

The woman in the photograph, identified as Larissa, broke her silence and said she had never been to India.

The Brazilian woman said in a video message as quoted by India Today, "I have absolutely nothing to do with politics in India. My photo was purchased from a stock image platform and used without my involvement. It’s not me, I’ve never even been to India."

"I’m a Brazilian digital influencer and a hairdresser, and I love the Indian people," she added.

Larissa said her Instagram handle has been flooded with comments and several Indian journalists have reached out to her for reactions.

"Welcome, my Indian followers, to my Instagram! It seems I’ve gained many Indian followers now. People were commenting on my photos as if I was elected! Just to be clear, it wasn’t me, it was only my photo," she added, as quoted by the broadcaster.

In response to Larissa's statement, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said, "The country's media should be ashamed that the work they were supposed to do is now being forced upon the opposition leader of this country because these poor souls have no time to spare from kissing feet.

"Even after seeing so much rigging in the voter list, they are all engaged in trying to prove Rahul Gandhi wrong. If you call them brokers, they take offense."