A seemingly routine press conference by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday took an unexpected global turn when he alleged that the photograph of a Brazilian woman had been used multiple times in Haryana’s electoral rolls to facilitate voter fraud. Gandhi’s claim, made during his “H-Files” presentation, ignited a wave of online sleuthing as people across India and abroad attempted to identify the “mysterious model” whose face, he said, appeared 22 times under different names in voter lists tied to the Rai assembly constituency.

Within hours, the internet had a name. And contrary to the assumption that the woman was a professional model, she turned out to be an ordinary Brazilian citizen with no connection to India or electoral politics. Her name is Larissa Nery, and until Thursday morning she was virtually unknown outside her home state in Brazil. By the evening, however, she found herself at the junction of Indian politics, online virality, and global bewilderment.

A Brazilian Hairdresser, Not a Model

Larissa Nery is a hairdressing professional based in Minas Gerais, a state in southeastern Brazil known for its colonial history, mining towns, and agricultural belt. She runs a small salon in Belo Horizonte, the state capital and one of Brazil’s major metropolitan hubs. Friends and clients know her simply as a creative stylist with a quiet social media presence. Before the controversy, she had roughly 5,400 followers on Instagram—most of them local Brazilians.

According to reporting by Brazilian fact-checking outlet Aos Fatos in collaboration with ThePrint, Nery said she has never worked as a professional model. The image that landed in the midst of Indian political conversation was an old photograph, taken when she was around 20 years old. She explained that she posed for the picture as a favour to a photographer friend who was trying to build his portfolio, and she never imagined the image would be used beyond that initial purpose.

That photographer was identified as Matheus Ferrero, a Brazilian creator known for uploading his images to free-to-use platforms. The photograph in question had been published on Unsplash in 2017—a popular international photo library where creators share high-resolution images that can be downloaded and used without licensing fees. According to earlier reporting, Ferrero has since removed Nery’s portrait from his Unsplash page and appears to have deactivated his Instagram account after being inundated with messages from Indian users.

Nery told Aos Fatos that she had no idea on which websites the photographer had uploaded her picture and said she had “seen it used in millions of things” over the years. She had never imagined, however, that it would become part of a political dispute in a country thousands of miles away.

Rahul Gandhi’s Allegation and the Image at the Centre

Rahul Gandhi revealed the photograph during his press conference in Delhi, claiming that it had been used repeatedly in voter rolls in Haryana. According to Gandhi, the image was uploaded from a “central server” and appeared 22 times across 10 booths under different names, including Seema, Sweety, and Saraswati. Gandhi said that this was evidence of systemic election manipulation in the 2024 Haryana assembly polls, which the BJP had won.

The claim prompted immediate political reactions—some dismissing the allegation, others demanding explanations from the Election Commission. But the online reaction took a different turn as people began searching for the woman’s identity. “Who is this lady?” Gandhi had asked, and social media users quickly attempted to answer. Within a matter of hours, Portuguese-speaking users recognized her. She was not a model, not Indian, not associated with politics, and certainly not a voter in Haryana. She was simply Larissa—a Brazilian hairdresser whose old portrait had travelled the world through the open-source ecosystem of image-sharing platforms.

Larissa Responds to Her Sudden Viral Fame

As clips of Gandhi’s presser circulated online, so did images of the woman she referred to. Soon, a Brazilian woman posted a short video in Portuguese, reacting to the attention. That woman was Larissa Nery.

In the video, translated by AI tools and verified by journalists, Nery appeared amused, startled, and slightly bewildered as she addressed the situation. She said:

“They are using a photo of mine to run, I don’t know if it’s an election, something where you have to vote. And in India, they are portraying me as an Indian woman to scam others.”

She emphasized repeatedly that the photo was old, taken when she was “very young,” around 20 years old. At present, she is in her late twenties.

What surprised her most was the sudden flood of attention. She told reporters that journalists had begun calling her salon. Some even reached out to her personal social media accounts seeking interviews. She said that a friend living in another city sent her screenshots of her face being shared in Indian political debates, and that she initially thought it was a misunderstanding.

“Oh my god, how crazy. What madness is this, what world are we living in,” she said, clearly overwhelmed by the bizarre turn of events.

The Photographer Under Scrutiny

As the controversy escalated, attention also turned to photographer Matheus Ferrero, whose Unsplash account originally hosted the portrait. Ferrero is known among the Brazilian photography community for shooting stylized portraits and fashion images. Many of his images are popular on free-to-use photo platforms, which allow global content creators to reuse images without restriction.

Once the Indian political controversy erupted, Ferrero reportedly received a barrage of messages and comments from people in India. Soon after, his Instagram account appeared to have been deactivated, and Larissa’s portrait vanished from his Unsplash profile.

How a Free-Use Photo Became a Political Flashpoint in India

Nery’s sudden appearance in Indian voter rolls stems from a more systemic issue: the unregulated use of stock images in identity-based documents. Platforms like Unsplash offer high-resolution photos with no requirement to credit or notify the original subjects. While such images are harmless when used for web design or creative projects, their misuse for official identification—such as voter rolls—raises serious concerns.

It remains unclear how the image entered electoral databases, who uploaded it, or why it appeared multiple times under different Indian names, as alleged by Rahul Gandhi. The Election Commission has not yet publicly commented on this specific image.

Nonetheless, the incident has highlighted the vulnerability of digital identity systems to manipulation using readily available photographs from the internet.

A Global Story Born of Local Politics

For Larissa Nery, the moment has been surreal. A woman running a small salon in Belo Horizonte suddenly discovered that her youthful portrait had been used in a political scandal in another continent. For Indian voters, the image has become a symbol in an ongoing debate over the integrity of electoral rolls. And for the political parties involved, it has become another flashpoint in a bitter and deeply polarised election season.

What began as a free-to-use photograph on a creative website has now turned into an international talking point—illustrating in real time how digital images, once released into the open, can take on lives of their own.

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