August 20, 2026 05:16 pm (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Jadavpur erupts again: ABVP-SFI clash, police barricades shattered as fresh tension grips area | Ex-Congress MP and 1984 anti-Sikh riots convict Sajjan Kumar dies while serving life sentence | India hits back at Pakistan: Structures outside High Commission demolished in Delhi | ‘Don’t daydream about my bedroom’: Kangana Ranaut fires back at Ramdev over ‘Gen Z’ row | Jadavpur University erupts at midnight: ABVP-Left student groups clash over meeting, BJP-CPI(M) leaders trade barbs | Vijay govt calls for action to stop students, youth from joining CJP, Left protests | Kolkata hotel fire kills 9: Bengal Minister Agnimitra Paul targets ex-TMC govt, CESC over licences | Kolkata hotel fire: 9 Bangladeshi nationals, including women and a child, die in massive blaze | Tarun Tejpal faces life term? Goa govt moves Supreme Court after 2013 rape conviction | Supreme Court rejects ‘less painful’ death penalty plea, but leaves door open for future change
Vote Chori
(L-R) Brazilian woman in video message and Rahul Gandhi during his 'vote chori' press conference. Photo: Screen-grab & Rahul Gandhi/Facebook

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

| @indiablooms | Nov 06, 2025, at 01:09 pm

New Delhi/IBNS: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday dropped what he called 'H-Bomb' by alleging large-scale voter fraud in the last year Haryana assembly elections, expanding his series of 'vote chori' charges against the Modi government.

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."

 

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.