A stunning twist has emerged in the political storm triggered by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s “H-bomb” revelations, as it was revealed that the woman whose image he cited as proof of fake voters in Haryana is, in fact, a Brazilian model featured on a popular stock photo website.

During his press conference on alleged large-scale irregularities in the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections, Gandhi displayed a photograph of a woman who he claimed had appeared multiple times in the state’s voter list, allegedly under names such as Seema, Sweety, and Saraswati. According to Gandhi, the same individual “voted 22 times in 10 booths,” which he said exemplified a “centralised operation” to manipulate the voter rolls.

However, internet users quickly identified the image as a stock photograph of Brazilian model Lara, originally captured by photographer Matheus Ferrero and uploaded to Unsplash.com, a free image-sharing platform. The image, titled “woman wearing blue denim jacket,” was first published in 2017, has been viewed over 59 million times, and downloaded more than 4 lakh times for public use.

Ferrero, a professional photographer based in Brazil, confirmed through his Unsplash profile that the image was taken using a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS camera. The model in the photo has appeared in blogs, design templates, and online publications worldwide — none of which have any link to Indian elections or voter databases.

The revelation that Gandhi’s “fake voter” example involved a widely available stock image has sparked an intense debate. While BJP leaders have dismissed the claim as a “political gimmick,” Congress supporters argue that the image was only symbolic, meant to highlight the alleged scale of digital manipulation in India’s electoral rolls.